Villa Pagana, Villa in San Michele di Pagana, Rapallo, Italy

Villa Pagana is a residential building on the summit of Punta Pagana in the frazione of San Michele di Pagana, Rapallo, near the boundary with Santa Margherita Ligure. Its private park holds the 17th-century Castello di Punta Pagana, and the grounds reach down toward the sea beside the parish church of San Michele Arcangelo.

The Orero family bought the land from the Rapallo family Giudice and built the villa in the early 17th century; Francesco Orero was the first owner, and his sons Francesco and Bernardo extended it to its present form until 1641. After Francesco's death in 1644 it passed to Gerolamo and Dionisio Orero, whose financial troubles led to its sale to Marquis Pier Francesco Cattaneo, and from 1708 to his brother Paolo Maria. Through family ties it reached the Spinola family, and Admiral Franco Spinola left the villa and its castle to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta by 1959.

Locals call it Villa dei Cavalieri di Malta or Villa Malta, names the sources call incorrect, since those belong to the Villa del Priorato di Malta in Rome. The villa hosted Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and his brother Giovanni in 1816, and Queen Margherita of Savoy with her brother Thomas in the early 20th century.

The property is not open to the general public since it functions as a private official residence. The building and its seaside setting can be appreciated from the nearby coastal pathways or from the water.

The castle in the grounds is not a Genoese coastal fort: it is a 17th-century structure that passed with the villa to the Order of Malta, which has held the whole property since Admiral Franco Spinola's 1955 will took effect in 1959. Locals call the residence Villa Malta, a name properly belonging to the Order's Roman seat.