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Moltrasio

Villa Passalacqua, Moltrasio

Visit duration
10–20 min
Booking
Not required
Area
First Basin
The beds of the Italian garden with its fountain and a tall cypress, above the lake and the mountains.Phyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Phyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Phyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0

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The beds of the Italian garden with its fountain and a tall cypress, above the lake and the mountains.

Phyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

Villa Passalacqua is an eighteenth-century residence in Moltrasio, with frescoed rooms and terraced gardens descending towards the lake.

The Odescalchi built its core on the ruins of an Umiliati monastery. In 1787 it passed to Count Andrea Passalacqua, who remodelled it with Felice Soave and Giocondo Albertolli. Vincenzo Bellini stayed here between 1829 and 1833. The rooms occupy three floors, linked by a grand staircase with a Rodin bronze. The dining room has a low vault supported by sixteen marble columns and monochrome paintings by Albertolli, who also frescoed the music room. The ceilings retain works by Andrea Appiani. In the Italian garden, stone stairways link terraces among statues, pools and fountains. Restored in the 1970s, the villa has been a hotel since 2022.

  • Traces of the walls of the Umiliati monastery survive in the villa's cellars.
  • A series of tunnels leads directly from the villa to its boathouse on the lake.

Highlights

  • The staircase with the Rodin bronze
  • The music room frescoed by Albertolli
  • The terraced garden with statues, fountains and olives

Getting there

  • It stands on Via Regina at Moltrasio, on the western shore between Cernobbio and Carate Urio.
The villa's entrance with its decorated doorway and, inside, the staircase with its red carpet.Phyrexian · CC BY-SA 4.0

On the map

Explore the lake
TornoMoltrasioVilla Passalacqua, Moltrasio

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

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Sources and credits

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