A tour of Lecco’s museums is certainly not complete without a visit to Villa Manzoni. The natural course of the tour is, in fact, after having seen Palazzo Belgiojoso with its civic planetarium and Palazzo delle Paure, to dedicate a few hours to visiting the building that was the main residence of the Manzoni family for at least two centuries.
The Villa Manzoni was just one of the many properties owned by the famous writer in the Lecco area. In fact, the first Manzoni to take up residence there was Giacomo Maria in 1621, until the 2nd July 1736 when the father of the famous Alessandro de I promessi sposi was born.
From some of the rooms of the villa you can see an evocative panorama, including the waters of the lake and the peaks of Mount Resegone, so much so that it is supposed that "That branch of Lake Como…" is the result of this daily scenery. The building shows a typical neoclassical stylistic line, with a few simple elements that give it an elegant note, with a façade divided by sandstone mouldings.
Although Villa Manzoni was sold to the Scola family in 1818, the building kept even the layout of the furnishings intact and was almost immediately opened to the public, receiving numerous groups eager to visit the places where one of Italy’s most important novels was written.
In the wake of this success, even today the Manzoni Museum at Villa Manzoni maintains its original house-museum layout. It also houses the Municipal Art Gallery, the Photo Library, the Library and the Separate Archive Section.
There are several rooms to visit in the Manzoni Museum, in which it is possible to appreciate some portraits of Alessandro Manzoni, prints, documents, various furnishings, clothes and costumes, autographs, paintings, Alessandro Manzoni’s cradle, the writer’s works closed in four showcases and much more.
