Lake Como Hotels - Accomodation Lake Como
Lake Como Hotels
Villa Monastero
Originally the villa was a Convent build in 1169 for a community of Cistercian Nuns, who escaped from the fire and destruction of Isola Comacina. The very first document referring to the Monastery of Varenna is a deed through which the Abbess Sofia buys three acres of land in 1208. In 1566 San Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, asked to dissolve the Community, after having ascertained the small number of nuns living there (only six) and 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 say that the Monastery was shut down because of the nuns' behaviour, who took advantage of the isolated position of the convent to live a dissolute life. In 1568 Paolo Mornico bought the monastery that was in great decay, and restored it as a house for his family. At his death, his son Lelio transformed it into a de-lux residential villa that passed down to his descendent until 1862. Since then, the villa passed on property to a number of rich Italian and foreign families. Each of them made 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 who, at his death in 1936 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 center for scientists The gardens of the Villa are open daily from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 3.00 to 6.30.
How to get to Varenna from Tremezzina by boat or by ferryboat from Cadenabbia or Menaggio.