Villa Melzi

Villa Melzi is a residential building erected by the Melzi family and overlooking the Adda river.
Giovanni Melzi, Count Palatine, had it built in 1482, giving it a more political-strategic type than as a land administration center. Around the villa there were military defensive factories on the border between the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice, located at the ferry that allowed the passage of goods and travelers. Leonardo Da Vinci, spent two years in the villa as a guest of Gerolamo Melzi. During that time he made drawings related to the proposal of a grandiose restoration of the building (now kept in the Ambrosian Library and in Windsor) and he entrusted some of his machinery drawings to Giovanni Francesco, son of Gerolamo and his best pupil.
Important personalities passed through the villa, crossing the Adda to enter the Milanese state and at the end of the eighteenth century the Este family also used the building as a holiday resort. The villa also hosted two artists: Gaspar van Wittel and Bernardo Bellotto who portrayed the beautiful views of Villa Melzi.
The noble residence, still owned by the Melzi d’Eril patrician family, externally incorporates the classic form of the great Renaissance villas with references to Roman architecture. The structure is surrounded by a vast garden characterized by labyrinths, caves, terraces and stairways which, following the gradient of the terrain, descend to the bank of the Martesana canal. Here a private dock was built that allowed the family to reach Milan with their own boat.
The building develops into an L-shaped plan with the elevation of the current third floor and maintains a sober facade on the river with rectangular openings, while the inner façade on the courtyard has a portico with twin columns and lowered arches. The ground floor develops into a long series of rooms and in one you can find a marble medallion depicting the profile of Leonardo Da Vinci. A staircase decorated with stuccoes leads to the upper floors and there is also an ancient water-operated elevator. Above the portico a gallery shows the famous fresco of the "Madonnone".