View from the lake - August 29, 2010
La Villa del Balbianello si trova a Lenno, in provincia di Como. La villa è collocata sulla punta della penisola di Lavedo, un promontorio che si spinge nel lago di Como e che proprio dall'edificio ha preso il nome di "Balbianello". Il complesso è di proprietà del Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI).
La villa venne costruita nel 1787 su un preesistente monastero francescano dal cardinale Angelo Maria Durini. Alla morte del cardinale, nel 1796 passò in eredità al nipote Luigi Porro Lambertenghi, che ebbe come precettore dei suoi figli Silvio Pellico. In seguito la proprietà venne acquistata da Giuseppe Arconati Visconti che ospitò nel suo salotto intellettuali quali Giovanni Berchet, Giuseppe Giusti e Alessandro Manzoni. Il figlio di Giuseppe, Gianmartino Arconati Visconti, fece apportare miglioramenti al giardino e alla loggia, ma al graduale declino del casato corrispose un similare abbandono della villa, che per più di trent'anni fu lasciata a se stessa.
Villa del Balbianello cadde in stato di abbandono finché un ufficiale statunitense, Butler Ames, la rilevò e ne rinnovò il giardino. Nel 1974 venne acquisita dall'esploratore Guido Monzino, erede della famiglia fondatrice della Standa, che la arredò con cimeli provenienti dalle sue spedizioni. Monzino, che morì senza eredi nel 1988, lasciò infine la villa al Fondo Ambiente Italiano, da allora proprietario dell'edificio che mantiene nelle condizioni in cui la lasciò l'esploratore lombardo.
Dagli anni 1990, la bellezza di villa del Balbianello ne ha fatto una richiesta location cinematografica. Nelle sue sale e giardini sono state girate varie pellicole internazionali, tra cui Un mese al lago di John Irvin (1995), Star Wars: Episodio II - L'attacco dei cloni di George Lucas (2002) e Casino Royale di Martin Campbell (2006).
Fonte: "Villa del Balbianello." Wikipedia, L'enciclopedia libera. 7 gen 2018, 17:20 UTC. 17 apr 2018, 19:56 <//it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Villa_del_Balbianello&oldid=93708635>.
La Villa è visitabile da metà Marzo a metà Novembre. Orari, prezzo dei biglietti ed altre informazioni sul sito del FAI dedicato.
The Villa del Balbianello is a villa in the comune of Lenno (province of Como), Italy, overlooking Lake Como. It is located on the tip of the small wooded peninsula of Dosso d'Avedo on the western shore of the south-west branch of Lake Como, not far from the Isola Comacina and is famous for its elaborate terraced gardens.
A Franciscan monastery had existed on the tip of the peninsula of Dosso d'Avedo since the 13th century. The two towers which remain on the property are the campanili of the monastery's church. After failing in his attempts to buy the nearby Isola Comacina Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini purchased the property in 1785. In 1787 he converted the monastery building into a villa for use during the summer and added a loggia, which allowed viewers to otain two different panoramas of the lake.
After the cardinal’s death in 1796, the villa passed to his nephew, Luigi Porro Lambertenghi. During Lambertenghi's ownership the villa became a seat of republican activity and members of the Carbonari met here to discuss the unification of Italy. Among Lambertenghi's guests at the villa were the writer and patriot Silvio Pellico, who tutored Lambertenghi's sons. In 1820 Pellico was arrested at the villa by the Austrian government which forced Lambertenghi to move to Belgium, where he was supported by the Arconati Visconti family.
Lambertenghi subsequently sold the villa to his friend, Giuseppe Arconati Visconti, grandfather of Luchino Visconti. Visconti made improvements to its gardens and the loggia. To this day the balustrade in front of the church bears the Visconti emblem of a serpent with a man in its mouth. During the period of Visconti ownership the villa hosted politicians and writers Giovanni Berchet, Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Giusti, as well as the artist Arnold Böcklin. The gradual decline of the family resulted in a lack of interest in the villa, which for more than 30 years was left to fall into a state of neglect.
Just prior to the commencement of World War I American businessman Butler Ames saw the villa for the first time. He made an offer to purchase it from the Arconati Visconti family and was initially rejected. He kept returning with ever-larger cash offers until in 1919 he was successful in obtaining ownership. Ames renovated the villa and its garden.
In 1974, Ames's heirs sold the villa to businessman and explorer Count Guido Monzino (leader of the first Italian expedition to climb Mount Everest. While Monzino left the exterior essentially unchanged he had the interior of the villa completely re-decorated, installing artifacts acquired on his expeditions as well as important pieces of English Georgian and French antique furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, Beauvais tapestries, French boiseries and Oriental carpets. In addition after the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978 by the Red Brigade. Monzino worried that he may be on their list, added a system of hidden passages, linking parts of the property.
Monzino died in 1988 and left the villa along with most of the Dosso d'Avedo and an endowment to pay for maintenance, to the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust of Italy. Its grounds now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.
Today the Villa del Balbianello is the most visited among the 52 FAI properties with over 90,000 visitors in 2015.
In 2016 the Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano commenced a €413,000 project to restore and improve the villa’s jetty, install new signage, new security, emergency lighting and fire prevention systems. The villa's existing diesel fuel system will be replaced with a modern heating system, new visitors bathrooms and drainage systems, and improvements to the bookshop and ticket office space.
A number of feature films have used the villa for location shooting, including A Month by the Lake (1995), His Demise starring Paul Zukowski (2016 disaster movie), Casino Royale (2006). The villa was also used for the lake retreat scenes in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002) however computer-generated imagery was used in place of the building's true exterior.
Source: Wikipedia contributors. "Villa del Balbianello." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Jan. 2018. Web. 17 Apr. 2018.
Visits to the Villa from mid March to mid November. Opening times, tickets and other infos available on the FAI website dedicated to the Villa.
LA CACHE/THE CACHE
Le coordinate sono fittizie.
The coordinates are fictitious.
La cache si trova a X metri di distanza da esse con un angolo di Y°
The cache is hidden at a distance of X meters from the posted coordinates and with a bearing of Y°
anno in cui la Villa fu acquistata da Guido Monzino - 1232 = X
year in which the Villa was sold to Guido Monzino - 1232 = X
anno in cui fu utilizzata come set di Star Wars - 1683 = Y
year in which the Villa was used as a set for the movie Star Wars - 1683 = Y
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
SI PREGA DI NON PUBBLICARE FOTO DI GZ, DEL CONTENITORE, DEL LOGBOOK, DI "VISTA DALLA CACHE". LASCIATE CHE QUELLI CHE VERRANNO POSSANO DIVERTIRSI NELLA RICERCA COME VOI!
PLEASE DO NOT LOG PICTURES OF GZ, THE BOX, THE LOGBOOK, "VIEW FROM THE CACHE". LET THE GEOCACHERS WHO'LL COME AFTER YOU TO ENJOY THE CACHE IN THE SAME WAY!
