VILLA
RUSCONI CLERICI
(VERBANIA, PALLANZA)

The villa Rusconi-Clerici is situated in the town of Verbania Pallanza, in surroundings of extraordinary beauty and boasts a romantic style garden which is almost two centuries old, as the exceptional specimens of magnolias, camphor trees, camellias and rhododendrons bear witness. The town of Pallanza itself is set below the green promontory of Castagnola, on the shore of Lake Maggiore, and is very antique, having originally been a Roman settlement.

After the war of 1859 the Hungarian patriot and colonel in Garibaldi's army, Stefano Türr took up residence in the Bozzotti villa, where the Rusconi-Clerici villa now stands.

We like to think that it was he who planted the magnificent magnolia that still recently spread its branches towards the lake, and that the first camellias and rhododendrons in the garden were planted by this idealist who came to Italy to fight for a romantic ideal of liberty.

At the end of the 19th century the original villa which Türr had lived in was demolished, and in its place a new villa in the Eclectic style, with rich neobaroque interiors, was built. This villa was on a much larger scale, perhaps because the new owner, Ferdinando Biffi and his son were both over 6'6" tall and requested that many details of the new house be sized for them.
The project was entrusted to the Architect Giovanni Giachi from Milan who also designed the interior decoration. The lady of the house, Cristina Biffi Pirinoli was an amateur painter who had trained at the Academy, and she herself painted the lake scenes in some of the villa's rooms, thus softening the effect of the coffered ceilings and neo-gothic furniture.

The house has a particular grandeur which strikes the visitor even today, notably the grand staircase in serpentine marble with a balustrade in wood and wrought iron which anticipated the Art Nouveau style.

The original garden has been enriched with a winter garden in rocaille, a lemon house and a spacious boat-house where the kingfishers can often be seen.
Numerous very rare camellia species have been transferred from the nearby Rovelli nursery, where Queen Margaret of Savoy used to love to go to discuss gardening.

In those years the house was the scene of great marriage celebrations, ceremonies and grand parties. Artists such as Troubetzkoy, Tominetti and Ranzoni, military men such as General Cadorna and Commandant Rizzo della Beffa di Buccari, the aristocratic families from the other villas on the lake: the Pallavicinos the Manca di Villahermosas, the Ammans, the Melzi d'Erils, the Francforts, the Branca di Romanicos, the Browne Casanovas, and the families of the increasingly wealthy industrialists all came to this villa on the lake.

Today the house is a hundred years old and the Biffi family have been succeeded by the Count Rusconi-Clericis. They have maintained intact the fascination of this great house and its historic garden. The villa continues to receive its guests with the colours of the azaleas and enchant them with the perfume of the olea fragrans and fascinate them with the romanticism of the lake. The water birds, the swans and the ducks all nest on the nearby island of Saint Giovanni, which was the postwar home of the great conductor Arturo Toscanini.

VILLA RUSCONI CLERICI
Via Vittorio Veneto, 16
28922 Pallanza (VB)

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