Exclusive apartment in historic mansion

Monza: Location and surroundings of this property

Period of construction: post 1829 - ante 1840. The Lombard neoclassical style villa stands in the historic center of Monza and includes a large park with two small temples, a neo-medieval tower, an irrigation ditch, an artificial pond, and various other classical architectural elements. The main body presents a central block including a ground floor and two upper floors, among giant Ionic half-columns with entablature, crowning tympanum and side attic. Internally, the villa was divided into apartments. Numerous frescoed rooms with vaulted ceilings, vertical brick structures and pitched tile roofing can still be enjoyed. The villa was built by Luigi Canonica (or with his intervention) for the Archinto Counts on the site of an earlier 18th-century complex. The building is considered the most important neoclassical villa in Monza, after the Royal Villa. Also designed by Canonica was the large landscaped park bordering the Royal Park and the Lambro River. The complex remained the property of the Archinto family until 1862, when Count Luigi sold it to the Barnabiti fraternity, who turned it into a boys' boarding school. In 1873 the institute was suppressed: the villa, purchased by Filippo Pennati, was rented to the administration of the Royal House until Umberto I held court in Monza. Since then it has remained in the hands of the Pennati family, which resides there permanently, guaranteeing its preservation.