Property of the Counts Cigala Fulgosi since 1855 and later of the Borromeo and Pirovano families, this splendid Neoclassic villa is surrounded by an 18th-century park set in a cultural landscape of great value.
The villa overlooks the garden affording sweeping views of the nearby landscape. A long 19th-century path lined with lime trees creates a far-reaching scenographic perspective along the central axis leading to the villa. Perpendicular to this is another path with a double line of poplars connecting the church of Santa Maria Assunta to the rural outbuilding. The formal garden opposite the villa is characterised by a large oval garden bed with a 20th-century neo-baroque mixtilinear basin decorated with heads of animals and eight cherubs. The park also extends to the back of the villa, delimited by two pathways lined with oaks, hornbeams, lime and plane trees that with a sinuous pattern surround the large central lawn connecting to the Lago delle ninfee, a lake with waterlilies with water coming from a natural source and at the centre of which there is a small island reached by a river pebble stonework bridge. Tall trees growing on the property include magnolia, lime trees and Lebanese cedars that harmoniously blend with the surrounding countryside.
Highlights
The villa
The elegant mid-18th century Neoclassic residence features splendid interiors, such as the Octagonal room on the ground floor and the Stucco hall on the first floor.
Oratory of Santa Maria del Portone
Built in the 17th century, this single hall oratory features a rich 18th-century decorative apparatus. The fresco on the vault representing the Triumph of the Virgin dates to 1921.
The agricultural outbuildings
A complex system of rural outbuildings delimitates a large farmyard: beyond two long buildings a large porticoed brick edifice overlooks the yard. Previously used as stable-barn, this edifice is internally divided in three naves in keeping with a building typology very common in the Parma and Piacenza countryside.