Project funded under the PNR, by the European Union Next Generation EU PNNR M1 C3. INTERVENTION 2.3 “Programs to enhance the identity of places: historic parks and gardens.”

The intervention lays the groundwork for a revitalization of the enjoyment of Italian parks and gardens, promoting sustainable and widespread tourism in which multiple sectors of local economies are directly and indirectly connected. The goal is to re-establish a renewed role for historic parks and gardens as centers of “public beauty” and places of identity for communities.

The project aims to upgrade the park through interventions related to the vegetation and architectural component, considering the safety conditions and the overall state of preservation; encourage the development of eco-systemic functions with positive environmental benefits, including the creation of a bio-lake; improve the overall maintenance, along with the accessibility and reception of the park and garden; integrate the planting component; and invest in enhancement and communication, especially digitally.

Given the extension of the monumental complex with the passing of the years new needs arise for the conservation and use of the villa, therefore between 2017 and 2019 maintenance and adaptation works of the spaces, especially the outdoor ones, continued. In a logic of enhancement and better use of the complex, a swimming pool located in the large park of the villa was built. Perfectly integrated into the context through the gray shades of the finishes, recalling the coloring of the seventeenth-century Peschiera and the decorative and sculptural elements affecting the monumental complex.

The roof was repaired and a sheath and insulating mat laid, allowing the reuse of the attic spaces to be planned in future. Conservation works were carried out at this stage on the plaster and the stone-masonry decorations on the facades, with pre-strengthening of the parts detached from the masonry support, cleaning of all the surfaces and sealing of the surface damage. A final lime-based rendering on the surfaces allowed the unity of the individual facades to be read, leaving the original plaster visible.
The statues on the pediment of the south facade and the minor ones facing west – attributed to the Albanese workshop – were washed with sprayed water and brushed, and the missing sections and cracks then repaired with mixtures of stone dust bound with natural lime. An acrylic-silicon based protective that combines strengthening action with waterproofing characteristics able to protect the stone for some years from aggression by pollutants was finally applied by brush.

The previously lacking subsidiary services were installed in the landlord’s courtyard with a view to a future but already planned management of the complex, with the necessary functional adaptations. In particular, some maintenance works were carried out inside relating to the adaptation of the toilet facilities for the numerous visitors who come to admire the villa, and designed in particular to overcome architectural barriers.