Villa De Vecchi, 19th century villa in Cortenova, Italy.
Villa De Vecchi is a three-storey mansion in Cortenova surrounded by a park covering more than 130,000 square meters in the Valsassina valley. The building displays a mix of architectural style elements, with oriental influences visible on the facade and in interior spaces.
Felice De Vecchi, a leader of the Italian National Guard during the Five Days of Milan, commissioned the villa from Cremonese architect Alessandro Sidoli. Construction began in 1854 and ended in 1858, after Sidoli's early death. The De Vecchi heirs abandoned it in 1938; displaced people lived there before the Medici di Marignano bought the estate in 1959. Local entrepreneurs took over in the early 1980s.
Locals call it Casa Rossa, after the reddish colour of its original plaster. Felice De Vecchi, who fought in the Five Days of Milan, filled the three floors with objects gathered on his travels, especially in Europe, and the eclectic design by Alessandro Sidoli echoes Bulgarian, Moorish and Romanian models. Neighbours now know the ruin as the Ghost Villa.
A fence secures the property at Via Largo Dè Vechi 1 in Cortenova, as the structure has fallen into severe decay through years of abandonment. Access is not permitted due to risk of collapse, and visitors should watch for uneven paths when walking around the outside.
Villa De Vecchi is locally called "la Villa dei Fantasmi" and "Casa Rossa", after its original colour. Popular tales speak of a female lament heard on solstice nights and of a piano sounding from a room that still holds a ruined instrument. Giovanni Negri, son of the estate's last custodian Antonio, stated that no murders, mysterious deaths or satanic rites ever took place there.
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