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Villa Olmo is a
neoclassicNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
villaA villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
located in the city of
ComoComo is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
, northern
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
History
The construction began in 1797 and was commissioned by marquis Innocenzo Odescalchi to the Swiss architect Simone Cantoni.
It was designed to be a summer retreat for the nobles, hence it was built alongside the lake; the villa was named after an
elmElms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
planted in the middle of the ornate gardens, no longer alive today.
It was acquired in 1924 by the municipality of Como and today is open to the public only during expositions, while the lakeside gardens are freely accessible at daytime.
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