Varenna and its libertine monastery

As its names reveals, originally the villa was a Monastery build in 1169 for a community of Cistercian (Benedictin) Nuns, who escaped from the fire and destruction of Isola Comacina. Anyway, the very first document referring to the Monastery of Varenna is a deed in which the Abbess Sofia buys three acres of land in 1208.

In 1566, San Carlo Borromeo Archbishop of Milan, having ascertained the small number of nuns living there (only six) dissolved the Religious Community because, according to the dispositions of the Trento Ecumenical Council, he could not consider them as a religious community any more. The 13th February 1567 with a Bull of Pope Pius V the Monastery was closed and the nuns transferred to Lecco. Some malignant people reported that the Monastery was shut down because of the nuns' behaviour, for it seems that they took advantage of the isolated position of the convent for living a dissolute life.

In 1568 Paolo Mornico bought the monastery, that ha been neglected for a long time and it was in great decay. He restored it as a house for his family and at his death, his son Lelio transformed it into a residential villa which belonged to his descendent until 1862. Since then, the villa passed on property to a number of rich Italian and foreign families. Each one making important architectural alterations so that, nowadays, nothing is left from the original building except some fragments of walls embodied into the modern structure.

As the last owner was a German, after the 1st World War, the Italian State annexed Villa Monastero as war booty. Later, it was sold to Marco De Marchi. At his death in 1936, he left it to the Hydrobiology and Limnology Institute. In 1977 the Villa was given to the National Council of Research under the management of Ente Villa Monastero and it has become an international meeting centre for scientists.

You can visit the Villa and the beautiful garden.
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