Villa Cazenove

The water garden

A pool that was never a pool

The long basin along the south front is the original 1790s reflecting canal, fed by the same spring as the water stair. It was lined for swimming in 1961 and its proportions were left exactly as they were.

Length

38 m

Source

Spring-fed

Terrace

Travertine, 1961

The approach

Three hundred metres of cypress

The drive was laid in 1794 and has never been widened, which is why it still narrows twice before the house appears. The trees are on their third planting; the alignment is on its first.

A house of this age has already survived everyone who built it. Our work is to find the next person willing to be its custodian.

The threshold

Nothing has been opened up

The plan is the plan of 1708. Rooms lead into rooms rather than into a void, and the enfilade along the garden front still runs unbroken from the library to the orangery.

The dining room

Seats twenty-two, and always has

The table was cut for this room and has never left it. Both chimney pieces are original Carrara; the parquet was relaid once, in 1912, using the boards taken up from the floor above.

Seats

Twenty-two

Ceiling

6.2 m

Aspect

South-west

Specification

Location

Lake Como, Italy

Interior

2,480 m²

Grounds

11.2 ha

Built

1708

Bedrooms

Fourteen

Reception

Nine

Staff wing

Separate

Parking

Six, covered

Guide

On application

Provenance

• Cazenove family1708 · 1889
• Conte Marchetti1889 · 1946
• Fondazione Lario1946 · 2019
• Private, unoccupied2019 · present

The collection

Forty-one houses

• Palazzo RenaldiVenice · 1611
• Amrit HaveliUdaipur · 1789
• Château de VauxLoire · 1654
• Ashcombe ManorWiltshire · 1723

Viewing

By appointment, in person

Houses at this level are not photographed for the open market and are not listed. Viewings are arranged privately, usually over two days, and always with a member of the house present.