A Centuries-Old Italian Villa Set in 11 Acres of English-Style Gardens Is Listed for €9.5 Million
Bedrooms: 19 Bathrooms: 11 Interior: 22,960 ft² / 2,133 m² Lot: 11.1 acres / 4.5 ha
Amenities: Library, wine cellar, game room, gatehouse, terraces, fireplaces, 2 greenhouses, Bee House
A centuries-old villa set within more than 11 acres of private parkland in Varese, northern Italy, has come to market for €9,500,000 with Bossi Real Estate.
Known as Villa Il Nonaro, the estate is located in Varese, a city in northern Italy approximately 34 miles / 55 kilometres northwest of Milan, close to the Swiss border and the lakes of Como and Maggiore.
Set in the foothills of the Alps, Varese is known as the Garden City for its parks, landscaped estates and concentration of historic villas. It offers a quieter alternative to Milan while remaining within reach of the city and Malpensa Airport.
The property stands on Miogni hill in the residential district of Masnago, approximately 2 miles / 3 kilometres from central Varese. The main villa and additional buildings provide approximately 22,960 ft² / 2,133 m² of interior space, with 19 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms.
The estate developed over several centuries rather than as a single architectural project. A property on the site was recorded in 1621 as the Possessione del Nonée, taking its name from the hill on which it stood.
The house began as a rural property and was enlarged over the following centuries as it passed between several families. Its present appearance reflects those different periods, with covered outdoor spaces, an upper gallery overlooking the grounds and a wrought-iron balcony wrapping around one corner of the house.
During the 19th century, the villa was restored by the brothers Giuseppe and Fausto Bagatti Valsecchi.
The Milanese brothers are best known for transforming their own family home in central Milan into an interpretation of a Renaissance palace. Filled with paintings, furniture and decorative objects collected by the family, the house is now open to the public as the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi.
At Il Nonaro, the brothers worked with the villa’s existing architecture, preserving its older features while adapting it into a more elaborate private residence.
The main house extends across several floors and contains a series of formal and informal living spaces, including a library, wine cellar and game room.
Several rooms open onto terraces and covered galleries overlooking the park, while a stone arcade along the ground floor creates a sheltered transition between the house and gardens.
The estate also has a connection to one of the leading figures in 20th-century Italian design.
Milanese architect and furniture designer Luigi Caccia Dominioni remembered a garden chair at his family’s Villa Il Nonaro when developing a collection of outdoor furniture during the late 1950s.
Named the Nonaro collection after the villa, the designs combined the curved shape of traditional Italian garden furniture with the cleaner lines of postwar design.
The collection was produced by Azucena, the influential furniture company Caccia Dominioni established with architects Ignazio Gardella and Corrado Corradi Dell’Acqua, and remains in production today through B&B Italia.
The park surrounding the villa was redesigned during the second half of the 19th century by Emilio Alemagna, a Lombard architect and landscape designer.
Rather than the symmetry and clipped hedges of a traditional Italian garden, Alemagna created an English-style landscape with open lawns, winding paths and groups of mature trees.
The grounds are arranged around a long entrance drive, allowing the house to remain largely hidden from the surrounding neighbourhood despite its proximity to central Varese.
The estate also includes a gatehouse, several rural buildings, 2 greenhouses constructed during the 1970s and a small structure known as the Bee House.
Beekeeping and honey production have long formed part of life at Il Nonaro, and the property has occasionally opened to visitors for tours of the house, park and historic honey-making operation.
Varese lies approximately 34 miles / 55 kilometres northwest of Milan, between Lake Maggiore, Lake Como and the Swiss border.
Known as the Garden City, Varese became a favoured setting for villas and landscaped estates during the 18th and 19th centuries. Wealthy Milanese families were drawn to its cooler climate, lake country and proximity to the foothills of the Alps.
The city is also home to Villa Panza, an 18th-century villa now known for its collection of contemporary American art, and lies below the Sacro Monte di Varese, a historic pilgrimage route recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This places Il Nonaro within a part of northern Italy that is less internationally familiar than Lake Como, but closely connected to Milan and the surrounding lake district.
The property is approximately 25 minutes from Milan Malpensa Airport, with Lake Maggiore and the Swiss canton of Ticino also within easy reach.
With more than 22,000 ft² of interior space, several additional buildings and 11 acres of private parkland, Il Nonaro could continue as a large family estate or accommodate hospitality and events, subject to the restrictions protecting its architecture and landscape.
All photographs belong to the listing agency.