Villa Carlotta Lake Como: a place of rare beauty

The mission of Villa Carlotta is preserve e improve the rich man competently historical and artistic heritage e botanist of Villa Carlotta a tremezzo. He wants to offer each guest aquality experience, unique and customizable, immersing them in the extraordinary scenery of Lake Como.

Villa Carlotta represents a treasure to live fully for all those who visit this area.

Villa Carlotta: prices and times

Opening hours 2024:

From March 22, 2024:

• Opening hours: 10.00-19.00
• Last entry: 18.00 pm
• Museum closing: 18.30 pm
• Closing of the garden: 19.00 pm

Until March 21, 2024:

• Villa Carlotta can only be visited by reservation by writing to segreteria@villacarlotta.it

Prices for visiting the villa

Single ticket:

• • Adult: € 15,00
  • Over 65 with identity card: €13,00
  • Student from 6 to 18 years: €6,00
  • Student from 19 to 25 years: €10,00
  • Children from 0 to 5 years: Free entry
  • Family (2 adults + 2 children from 6 to 18 years): €30,00
  • Residents of Tremezzina and Griante with identity card: Free entry
  • Membership card at the price of 70 euros: Free entry
  • With companion: Free entry

The history of Villa Carlotta

Villa Carlotta boasts a history of over three hundred years characterized by a great collecting, where art and nature blend in a landscape of unquestionable charm.

Built at the end of the seventeenth century by Marquises Clerici of Milan on the banks of the Lake Como, the villa passed in 1801 BC Giovanni Battista Sommariva, a leading figure in the Governing Committee of Cisalpine Republic established by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Giovanni Battista Sommariva, thanks to his passion for arts and in particular for the sculpture, accumulated over the course of his political career a impressive heritage, which includes works by masters such as Antonio Canova e Berthel Thorvaldsen.

In 1843, the villa passed to Princess Marianna of Prussia, who subsequently donated it to her daughter Carlotta on the occasion of his marriage to Duke George II of Saxe-Meiningen in 1850. The Princess Charlotte and Duke George II they thus became the new owners of the villa.

Over the following decades, the residence was adapted to the family's needs and changes in taste, with renovations in the furnishings and decorations.

The architect Lodovico Pogliaghi he played a fundamental role in the restoration of the reception rooms, where his talent transformed the rooms according to the aesthetic standards of the time.

Today, the results of these interventions can be admired in the rooms on the second floor of the museum, where the furnishings purchased by the owners.

Ernest, son of Duke George II, contributed his own wall paintings to enrich the atrium of the Gallery with motifs taken from classical mythology. The precious items are still visible friezes e painted wooden ceilings dating back to the Clerici era, rediscovered during the restoration work on the rooms.

Despite the early death of Princess Charlotte in the 1855, the Duke George II he continued to enrich the park with rare botanical essences, which can still be admired today. During the World War I, the villa was confiscated by the Italian State and entrusted to the management ofVilla Carlotta Institution, established in 1927 by Royal Decree.

Villa Carlotta Gardens

The Italian Garden

The Italian Garden Dating back to the time of the construction of the villa, this part of the park presents the distinctive features of formal Italian garden: an axis of symmetry that crosses the garden up to the clock on the roof of the building, well-kept hedges, fountains, statues e geometric boxwood flowerbeds.

This style integrates perfectly with the Enlightenment philosophy of the 18th century, in which the rationality it prevailed over feeling and man dominated nature.

The Romantic Garden

The Romantic Garden Designed to amaze and excite visitors, the Romantic garden it extends over a larger surface area than the Italian garden.

Featuring a series of theatrical environments created with skill through the arrangement of plants and architectural elements, this garden enchants with its beauty e suggestion.