Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, Art museum in Biumo Superiore, Varese, Italy.
Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza is an art museum near Varese displaying modern and historical works. The building features a U-shaped structure with three floors arranged around a central courtyard facing west, with a park extending from the property.
The Menafoglio family built the villa on the hill of Biumo Superiore; work was well underway by 1755 and finished before 1766, when Francesco III d'Este visited. Financial trouble forced its sale in 1788. In 1823 it passed to Pompeo Litta Visconti Arese, who from 1829 had Luigi Canonica enlarge it, creating stables and the oval Salone Impero; Litta was made duke in 1832. During the Battle of Varese on 26 May 1859 the villa served as a hospital.
The name Panza comes from Count Ernesto Panza, a wine merchant who bought the villa in 1935 and was later made Count of Biumo. His son Giuseppe Panza di Biumo began in 1956 to fill the rooms with monochrome paintings and minimalist sculpture, and invited Dan Flavin, James Turrell and Robert Irwin to make works for specific rooms. Giuseppe and Rosa Giovanna Panza gave villa and collection to the FAI in 1996, keeping the second floor as their flat; it opened to the public in 2001.
The villa sits on the Biumo Superiore hill above Varese, reached by a climb from the lower town; the entrance front opens onto Piazza Litta, widened by Canonica. The park covers about 33,000 square metres across three terraces, the lowest below the other two, so allow time for the slope between the courtyard, the rooms and the grounds.
The dining room, the Salone Impero, was built by Luigi Canonica between 1829 and 1831 as a single-storey rectangular block whose corners were cut by columns to form an oval. Canonica also designed its stove, floor pattern and consoles. A tiered crystal chandelier hangs from the plaster ceiling above the geometric stone floor.
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