The baroque Villa Sormani is in the village of

Moncucco Moncucco was an autonomous Italian municipality until March 30, 1871, when due to a royal decree it became a hamlet of the town of Brugherio, established in 1866. The actual village is located south of Brugherio, along the road that leads from Mil ...

in the city of

Brugherio Brugherio (; in lmo, Brughee ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan. It was established December 9, 1866 unifying the suppressed municipalities of Ba ...

. The Villa Sormani was the site chosen by Count

Paolo Andreani Paolo Andreani (27 May 1763 – 11 May 1823) was an Italian who made the first balloon flight over Italian soil. He also made an exploration around the Great Lakes in North America. Life Andreani was born in Milan on 27 May 1763. His father was ...

to demonstrate the first public balloon flight on Italian soil in 1784. In the grounds is a church that was moved from Switzerland.

History

It is said that there was once a castle here that sat on the small rise surrounded by countryside. The villa was built in 1733 for Count Charles Joseph Bolagnos by the Milanese architect who worked in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style. It was sold in 1779 to the Andreani family. The house contained their painting collection which featured works by

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

. In 1784 the villa was owned by Gian Mario Andreani whose younger brother had an interest in balloons following the first flight in France in 1783. In 1817 the building was left in a will to Joseph Sormani who was a cousin of the Andreani family. In 1913 it was sold to the Verri family and in the 1980s it was sold by the Stanzani family to the current owners.Villa Sormani
Comune Brugherio. Retrieved 5 August 2015

Description

The present two storey building is of a uniform height and the hipped roof is tiled. The original form of the building was a U shape with the main façade facing the town centre. One of the main features is the wide stairway leading up to the pillars flanking the main entrance into the garden. The grounds also contain the Saint Lucius Church, also known as the Little Church of Moncucco (''tempietto di San Lucio in Moncucco''). This building was moved here by the Andreani family at the instigation of the architect

Giocondo Albertolli Giocondo Albertolli (24 July 1743 – 15 November 1839) was a Swiss-born architect, painter, and sculptor who was active in Italy during the Neoclassical period. Biography Albertolli was born into a family of artists in Bedano, a village 7 ...

. Abertolli had found that the building at a convent in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

was to be demolished and he persuaded his patron to have it dismantled and rebuilt here. Over seventeen yearsValli, Laura; Cannella, Calogero. Il tempietto di Moncucco. Restauro e considerazioni sull'ex oratorio dei conti Andreani-Sormani in Brugherio già cappella di S.Antonio presso il Convento di S. Francesco in Lugano (in Italian). p. 10. the building was dismantled and transported to Brugheri via wagons and a canal. Abertolli made changes to the design and it was re-dedicated to Saint Lucius and reopened in 1832.Villa Sormani
VisitBrianza.it. Retrieved 6 August 2015 This building was restored in 1994. The main building was renovated in the 1980s when the interior was subdivided to create several separate residences.

First Italian balloon flight

Prima ascensione di Paolo Andreani da Moncucco (1784)

had seen a model balloon built by and his brothers ascend a few feet powered by hot air. Andreani undertook to fund the Gerli brothers to build a much larger hot-air balloon with a diameter of that would be capable of allowing a man to take to the air. The balloon took 24 days to make and its laden weight was about . The first flight was on 25 February 1784. An invited crowd then gathered on 13 March 1784 at the Villa Sormani which was his brother's residence. The spectators saw Andreani and two of his assistants ascend to a height of over whilst the balloon travelled several kilometres.Paolo Andreani (1763–1823)
Grandi Personaggi. Retrieved 5 August 2015 The emperor who missed the spectacle arranged for a medal to be made. The medal featured Gerli's balloon on one side and Andreani on the other to commemorate the ascent.Commemorative Medal
icollectors.com. Retrieved 5 August 2015

References

{{Brugherio Tourist attractions in Lombardy Baroque architecture in Lombardy Sormani

History

Description

First Italian balloon flight

See also

References