Villa Fontanelle is a

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

(sometimes called a palazzo) near Moltrasio on

Lake Como Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, Italy, about from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. The four-storey yellow-painted building was built in the first half of the nineteenth century by the eccentric Lord Charles Currie, a visiting Englishman who fell in love with Lake Como. Failing to find a villa for sale, he decided to create his own, right on the water's edge. It was subsequently owned by Antonio Besana, a friend of the composer

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

. By 1977, when it was bought by Italian designer Gianni Versace, it was in a state of abandonment, and the designer set about restoring it to its former neoclassical glory. The work, completed in December 1980, included landscaping the three acres (1.2 ha) of ornamental gardens, which include three cottages, a tennis court, water frontage of some 800m and a private mooring. Versace personally chose hundreds of oil paintings, and with other artworks displayed throughout the interior and exterior, he created a mini-palace that was a personal shrine. The English art historian and landscape gardener Roy Strong created the gardens of the villa for Versace. Strong also worked on the grounds of Versace's house in Miami, the Casa Casuarina. Before Versace's death, celebrities such as Sir

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-eart ...

and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

were regular guests at the property. Since the death of Versace in 1997, however, only American singer

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

and her husband Cris Judd were known to have visited, having spent their honeymoon there in 2001. Otherwise, the property was largely a lifeless temple to Versace. The estate is now owned by Russian millionaire restaurateur Arkady Novikov, who bought it for 33 million Euros in early 2008 and retained Milanese architect Claudio Pozza to undertake restoration works at the property.La Provincia Di Como, 'Villa Fontanelle, il russo restaura E il Comune di Moltrasio incassa' 17 ottobre 2012, Como.

Gallery

File:Guesthouse at Villa Fontanelle.JPG File:Villa Fontanelle View.JPG File:Second Guesthouse and storeroom at Villa Fontanelle.JPG

References

Gardens by Roy Strong Houses completed in the 19th century Province of Como Versace

Fontanelle A fontanelle (or fontanel) (colloquially, soft spot) is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising soft membranous gaps ( sutures) between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. Fontanelles allow f ...

Neoclassical architecture in Lombardy 19th-century architecture in Italy {{Italy-struct-stub