Villa Litta Lainate

The Estate

Villa Borromeo Visconti Litta, villa of delights in which art, history and recreation leave the visitor enchanted by the beauty of the variety of mosaics, statues, frescoes, fountains and water features.

Count Pirro I Visconti Borromeo - around 1585 - designed the complex inspired by the Medici villas in Tuscany and transformed the property of Lainate in a unique place, thanks to the workers of exception such as the architect Martino Bassi, sculptors Francesco Brambilla Il Giovane and Marco Antonio Prestinari, painters Camillo Procaccini and Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli known as Morazzone, Agostino Lodola and Giovanni Battista Maestri, called “il Volpino”.

The Count had the gardens done and the Palace of Waters built, more commonly known as Nymphaeum. The house became the scene of great parties and receptions, but also an important meeting point for artists and intellectuals.

The Nymphaeum is a place of great charm and - because of the wealth of decorations and hydraulic performances - is considered the most important and significant example of the genre, especially since - a very rare thing - it works, today, just as then, thanks to sophisticated hydraulic mechanisms governed by skilled plumbers.

Centuries of construction: 16th – 18th.

Authors: Martino Bassi, projected the villa and the nymphaeum; Camillo Procaccini, decoration; Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli known as Morazzone, decoration; Brambilla Francesco Il Giovane, decoration; Giulio Cesare Procaccini, decoration; Agostino Lodola and Giovanni Battista Maestri called “Il Volpino”, decoration; Giuseppe Levati, decoration; Donato Carabelli, decoration; Luigi Canonica, project for the park.