VILLA FARAGGIANA
(MEINA)

This villa is a splendid example of neo-classical architecture. It enjoys a wonderfully panoramic position on the "Sempione" Road between Arona and Meina and was built in 1855 by "Senator del Regno" and the Sarzana's nobleman Raffaello Faraggiana (1841-1911) from a project by the engineer Antonio Busser.
The two-storey villa is one of the most impressive and significant edifices on the Piedmont shores. Planned as a summer residence its lakeside facade is reach of particulars, for example the tympanum. A wide flight of steps leads up to the portico, its four columns supporting a terrace above. Round the back of the villa between the ground floor and the first floor is a mezzanine and between this and the attic are two smaller floors where the servants originally lodged. The villa is surrounded by an immense park of about seventy hectares which was once full of precious vegetation and a collection of orchids. At that time the garden was open to the public and also featured a collection of stuffed animals brought back by Alessandro Faraggiana from his travels in Africa as well as a zoological museum. After the death of the first owners the heirs left the villa uninhabited. During the war it became a shelter for evacuees, soldiers and Jews who had survived the concentration camps. Once peace was restored it was considered turning the building into a hotel but then the descendents of Senator Faraggiana decided to donate it to the "Suore dell'Ordine delle Poverelle di Bergamo" (Sisters of Bergamo) who used it as an orphanage and then as a convalescent home.

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