VisitaMilano

 Villa Torretta
The first records of the building date from 1607, when it was the property of the Spinola-Anguissola family, who had the adjacent chapel built for worship. The villa was owned by various noble families over the centuries until it became the property of the Ernesto Breda Company in 1903 and was used as accommodation for the workers. It was abandoned for a long period, from the 1960s until 1981, when the Parco Nord Consortium surveyed the property and entrusted to a private developer, who restored it between 1997 and 2002, making it into a luxury hotel. Aside from the building's interesting architectural forms, its 17th-century frescoes, with views of the city, fantasy locations and family coats of arms are of great interest.

 Villa Trotti Bentivoglio
Di particolare interesse è la settecentesca villa Trotti Bentivoglio, poi Massarani e oggi Formenti. La villa, menzionata dal poeta Carlo Amoretti a inizio Ottocento, è circondata da un vasto parco all’inglese, con una ricca varietà di piante, in cui furono fatte costruire un’orangerie e una Coffee House. Ospite della villa fu più volte Alessandro Manzoni, suocero di un membro della famiglia proprietaria.

 Villa Uboldo
Villa Uboldo was designed by the architect Camillo Rougier in 1817 for his cousin Ambrogio Maria Martignano Uboldo, an eclectic character who earned himself the title of Don Giovanni. It was inspired by the works of Piermarini, the architect who designed La Scala in Milan. It has an English garden in which a lake was created that was linked to the Martesana canal by inlet and outlet channels. A grotto, a maze and a wooden hut, the Angelica and Medoro farmstead, which was decorated with frescoes, were also built. There is the curious presence of what appears to be the facade of a Lombard Gothic church. It was placed over the front of an old cottage and was actually used for storing table wine. The crenelated tower and perimeter wall with coats of arms are also fake.

 Villa Verzolo Monzini
Commissioned by Monzini towards the middle of the eighteenth century, the building was used for agricultural purposes, with living quarters in the lateral wings, together with the stables and the outhouses. Around 1850 it was transformed into a villa, and frescos were painted on the ceilings; it stands inside an English-style park.

 Villa Visconti Borromeo, Litta, Weil Weiss
Villa Visconti Borromeo Litta, famous for the abundance of its decorations and the variety of its water features, occupies a total area of around three hectares, which include its park. The entire estate was designed in 1585 by Pirro I Visconti Borromeo, a widely-read patron of the arts with many interests, who transformed it into a place of delights. The best artists of the Lombardy area participated in the work, including the architect Martino Bassi and the painter Camillo Procaccini. The nymphaeum, consisting of a series of spaces decorated with mosaics and with artificial grottoes, is considered to be one of the most important examples of its kind in northern Italy, due to the abundance of its decorations and the variety of its water features. The gardens were renovated according to eighteenth-century standards, by the work of great sculptors and of the architect and painter Francesco Levati.

 Villa Visconti d'Aragona
Villa Visconti d'Aragona de Ponti came to life on the sixteenth century. The villa's story is closely tied to Giovanni Antonio Parravinci, the famous collector and buyer who owned a rich collection of paintings that have unfortunately been dispersed. From 1669 to 1721, for over half a century, he inhabited the villa and adorned it with numerous frescoes and decorations. To celebrate his wedding with Francesca Castiglioni in 1680, he commissioned valuable projects: Besides adding the bridegrooms coat of arms, the Parravicini's swan and the Castiglioni's lion. A room was entirely covered in frescoes that depict landscapes and mythological figures which represent Liberty, Wisdom, Wealth, and Strength. After Parravicini's death, the building became part of other noble families, the Visconti Boromeos and then Visconti D'Aragona, who released it in 1873 to the enterprising bourgeois family of De Ponti, who remained in possession of the villa for almost a century.

 Villa Visconti di Modrone
From Piazza Cavour overlooking the river stands Villa Visconti di Modrone, appearing today in its eclectic nineteenth century style, though it was certainly built prior to the mid-1700s. Its terraced garden faces the river which, in this stretch, flows very close to the Martesana Canal; from the square, a flight of stone steps leads to the canal and its wash-house. In the grounds of Villa Visconti, a marker shows the outline - rediscovered and brought to light - of what were once a 12th century oratory and the adjacent private chapel of Giovanni Melzi, dedicated to Saint Bernardino.

 Villa Visconti Maineri
The three storey villa largely maintains its mid 1600s appearance of when the work was completed. In order to build the villa - over land that belonged to Visconti since 1392 - they demolished an existing building, which was most likely a farmstead. The front façade overlooks an Italian style garden positioned parallel to the Naviglio River. The park, just beyond the villa, is at a higher elevation than the garden, and ends with a fruit grove. The 18th century chapel of the villa Visconti is divided into two sections: the area open to the public, and the closed area reserved for the altar. Then there is a building that houses the worker's quarters, that in Cassinetta were called "casa da massaro" (who works the land) and "casa da pigionante" (a tenant, probably from a workshop).

 Villa Vittadini "La Cazzola"
Villa was built in the 16th century, on a pre-existing structure, as a hunting lodge, and renovated by the Durini family in 1630 and, in 1812, following a design by Carlo Amati of Monza. In the last decade of the 19th century, on the occasion of important restoration work, a chapel was built based on a design by the brothers Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi. It has a large, landscaped park with 18th-century remnants.

 Villa Zari Mereghetti
Built during the 1700's, originally was the guest headquarters of the more famous Villa Firsiani Olivares located in number 25. It was then turned in to an independent villa. The façade is still decorated with frescoes depicting niches and statues. Built rectangular shape over two floors, with two lower wings, the two small buildings might have been used as the stables, in order to create a U-shaped structure. Located in via Cattaneo, it now belongs to the Mereghetti family.

 Villa Zoja
The villa, built in the 1600s, was bought in 1737 by the milanese Grandizzi family, who built the nearby small church of Beata Vergine Maria Immacolata at the end of the same century. In the 1800's the villa passed by marriage from the Grandazzi's to the Zoja family, its present owners. The imposing building, an eclectic mid-19th century construction, is surrounded on three sides by a large landscape garden which gives a rare impression of apparently natural countryside: the trees and plants grow freely and naturally affording the visitor different views reminiscent of the natural beauty of open country and woodland.

 Villa Zorn
Villa Zorn in via Cesare da Sesto was constructed in the early 19th century and purchased by the Austrian Zorn family in 1870.

 Villa-castello
The Villa-Castello was risen in 1926. Above the entrance there is a Latin inscription intended to remind visitors of the pleasant hospitality they received: Facite ut semper domus recordemini (Always seek to remember this house).

 Visconti Banfi palace
The Palazzo Visconti Banfi maintains its original picturesque decoration. The beautiful series of frescoed rooms that date back to the late 1600's and early 1700s were made by Milan masters. It also boasts an interesting garden, but only a section was designed in Romanic style. The complex was built on 1669, and continued to be modified through-out the 1800s.