Casino dei Boschi, Neoclassical villa in Sala Baganza, Italy.
Casino dei Boschi is a neoclassical villa with a three-level main building and a single-story secondary structure at the rear. The entire property spans several thousand square meters and is organized through a network of curved and straight pathways.
The hunting lodge at the centre of the estate was rebuilt for Duchess Maria Amalia of Bourbon from 1775 by court architect Ennemond Alexandre Petitot; the neoclassical residence was inaugurated on 21 June 1789. In 1819 Maria Luigia of Habsburg bought the Casino, the woods and dependencies for 75,219 Parmesan lire and had Nicola Bettoli enlarge the villa between 1819 and 1826, raising it by a floor, demolishing the central tower and closing the facade portico.
The small court theatre stood inside the Casinetto, the wider building at the centre of the long portico called Prolunga, built for Marie Louise after 1819. The rural courtyard known as the Ghetto housed about thirty families, some of them artisans, until the last residents left after 1960.
The property is located within a protected natural park and connected to other historic structures through walking paths. Wear appropriate footwear since the routes pass through varied terrain.
The "Ghetto" was not a historic craft quarter but the rustic courtyard of the estate, rented by the Carrega princes to about thirty families in the early 20th century; artisans' workshops and additions altered it, and the last residents left after 1960. The 1983 earthquake damaged the complex, and in 2014 the site drew 5,567 votes in FAI's "Luoghi del Cuore" census.
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