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Cernobbio

Villa d'Este, Cernobbio

Visit duration
5–15 min
Booking
Not required
Area
First Basin
Villa d'Este's long pale front on the shore, with yellow awnings on the ground floor and Cernobbio's houses on the hill behind.K.Weise · Public domain
  • Kaitu · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • RaminusFalcon · CC BY 3.0

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Villa d'Este's long pale front on the shore, with yellow awnings on the ground floor and Cernobbio's houses on the hill behind.

K.Weise · Public domain

Why go

Villa d'Este, in Cernobbio, was built between 1565 and 1570 for Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio to a design by Pellegrino Tibaldi.

Created as a summer residence at the mouth of the Garovo stream, it became a hotel in 1873. In 1815 Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales, bought it, named it Villa d'Este and remodelled it in Neoclassical style. The U-shaped façade opens towards the lake with a terrace on arches. The park retains the stucco and pebble nymphaeum known as “il Mosaico” and the avenue of Hercules, with cascades and basins leading up to the group of Hercules and Lichas. Vittoria Peluso, Marchioness Calderara, commissioned the mock fortresses in 1808 to celebrate her husband Domenico Pino's military exploits in Spain as a Napoleonic general.

  • The long lake front, seen whole from the boat.
  • A sixteenth-century villa that belonged to Caroline of Brunswick and has been a hotel since 1873.

Highlights

  • The lake front with its terrace on arches
  • The nymphaeum of stucco and pebbles
  • The Hercules avenue with its cascades
  • The plane tree over five hundred years old

Getting there

  • It stands on Via Regina at Cernobbio, on the shore north of the centre; the front is seen whole from the boat.
The long front of Villa d'Este seen from the lake in autumn, with the villa's name written at the top centre, orange awnings and yellow trees on the shore.Nikolai Karaneschev · CC BY 3.0

On the map

Explore the lake
CernobbioVilla d'Este, Cernobbio

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

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