Villa Manzoni, Literary museum in Lecco, Italy

Villa Manzoni is a neoclassical country house in Lecco, decorated with sandstone details and columns. The building wraps around a central courtyard and sits close to the city center, where it now serves as a museum dedicated to the writer Alessandro Manzoni.

The Manzoni family moved to the Caleotto house around 1620 from the Valsassina, and the building was constructed around 1621; a document of 15 August 1612 already names Giacomo Maria Manzoni as a dweller there. Renovations by Pietro Antonio Manzoni and his brother Monsignor Paolo Manzoni, supervised by Giuseppe Zanoia, gave the villa its present appearance. Alessandro Manzoni sold the property to the Scola family in 1818, and in 1940 King Victor Emmanuel III declared it a national monument.

The villa takes its name from the Manzoni family, who lived here across several generations. Walking through the rooms today gives a clear sense of how a prosperous Lombard family spent their daily life in the 19th century.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, so it is worth planning your visit accordingly. Inside, several exhibition areas can be explored in any order, and the courtyard is also worth a look before leaving.

Pietro Manzoni, Alessandro's father, died in 1807 and is buried not in the courtyard but in the chapel of the Assunta, on the left of the porticoed courtyard; the chapel was finished in 1777. Visitors often cross the courtyard without entering it.