To welcome visitors, above the main portal of the building, there are busts of Carlo and Francesco Dosi, the creators and commissioners of the Villa. From the cartouches below their portraits, we learn that the building was constructed by Carlo and Francesco in the year 1700.

In reality, the year 1700 should be considered as indicative, as recent family documents and wills suggest that the villa’s conceptual design may have been developed between the 1660s and 1670s. According to the documents, in 1693, Villa Dosi, described as a “fabrica” and a “palace with a garden,” was already covered, and work was being done to add statues and decorative paintings.

While we know for certain the names and roles of those who wanted and commissioned Villa Dosi, there is no clear information about the identity of the architect who designed it or the workers who built it.

For the interior decoration, two renowned artists were commissioned: the Lombard Francesco Natali, an architect and painter of Cremonese origin trained at the school of the Bibiena family, and the Tuscan Alessandro Gherardini, “the last of the great Florentines,” a highly regarded artist who was very active in Pontremoli.

Natali is typically credited with decorating the interiors with typical “quadratures,” which would become the hallmark of Baroque architecture in Pontremoli throughout the first half of the 18th century. Gherardini is credited with the frescoed figures in the main hall, although much of this artwork has unfortunately been lost over time.

While Alessandro Gherardini worked at Villa Dosi between 1697 and 1700, Francesco Natali first worked there in 1697, staying on the project for at least ten years.

Family tradition also attributes to Natali the design of the Chiosi bridge and the small chapel. An inscription testifies that the bridge was commissioned by Carlo Dosi in 1705 “for his own use and that of his heirs.”

The villa was completely abandoned during the years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. However, restoration efforts began in 1814 and continue today.

“Those thirty years of abandonment left ‘indelible traces’ on the frescoes in the hall, many of which were irreparably lost, as were the furniture, doors, statues, and even the grand entrance gate, which was later replaced in the 19th century.” This is how Pier Andrea Dosi Delfini describes it in one of his writings. Slowly, the family began to redecorate the villa, often purchasing (or repurchasing) paintings, furniture, and chandeliers from other Pontremoli families or through careful research in the antique market.

During World War II, the villa was the target of repeated air raids by Allied forces aiming to dislodge a German command stationed at a cannon near the railway tunnel. There are still clear marks of these bombings inside the hall.

Statues from the period, along with tall trees (magnolias and holm oaks) and numerous potted lemon trees, adorn the villa’s terraced garden on the south side, while higher up, the belvedere offers a remarkable view of the house and the surrounding landscape. Notable are the Lebanese cedars planted at the villa’s entrance to mark the birth of the current owner’s great-grandfather in 1867.

Imagined as a place of delights and social events in the Baroque style, the villa best represents the spirit of its time, through a continuous interplay of nature, architecture, artistic decoration, and refined furnishings. The building is spread across a slope, with a central H-shaped structure flanked by two terraced gardens, and framed at the top by a large terraced vineyard.

In 1988, the villa was recognized for its “particular historical and artistic interest.” This recognition marked the beginning of numerous restoration and preservation efforts, which began between 1991-1993 and have now returned this extraordinary property to its former glory.

(Excerpt from www.villadosidelfini.it)

For visit information:

Cooperativa Sigeric
Phone: +39 331 8866241
Email: info@sigeric.it
Website: www.sigeric.it
www.villadosidelfini.it

photos: arch. Elia Santini