SHARRYLAND
Villa Toeplitz and its park
The banker, the dancer and the garden of dreams
Where is
What it is and where it is
Sant'Ambrogio is the neighborhood at the foot of Sacro Monte that saw the construction of many holiday homes in the early 1900s. It is here that Toeplitz Park, among the largest and most unusual in the city, is located. It is eclectic in taste, elegantly combining the French-style symmetrical garden with Italian influences, the English-style romantic park, Renaissance gardens, forest and chestnut grove. Even today, oriental-style fountains and gutters enliven the landscape with exotic water features. So much beauty and variety in one garden leaves no choice: you have to visit it.
Why it is special
It is a fascinating place with architectural, environmental and landscape value. The geometries of the water features desired by Ms. Toeplitz were inspired by the Indian gardens of Babar, the "father of gardens," and Jahangir, both emperors of the Mughal dynasty, creators of works she had visited during travels in Kashmir and North India. The Park has suffered the neglect of time but has endured, being reborn, and although it is located within the city, it is detached from it, distant and exotic: a green space immersed in the history of those who designed, lived in and visited it.
Not to be missed
The park preserves the structures that housed the Toeplitz family, guests and staff. Among these the queen is the Villa, an eclectic blend of neoclassical references, Lombard style in the exposed brickwork and Art Nouveau lightness. Today the dèpendance is home to the Castiglioni Ethno-Archaeological Museum, which tells the story of the two explorer brothers, pioneers in ethnology and archaeology. It is a rich and interesting journey that speaks of a distant and primitive Africa: it invites the journey of discovery of different cultures through the lives of two great scholars and explorers of the 20th century.
A bit of history
Toeplitz, a Pole, was the director of the Italian Commercial Bank who wanted to bring prosperity to a society in renewal. He bought the Villa in 1914 to adapt it to his and his wife Hedwig Mrozowska's taste. Together with her, Duse of Poland, a dancer and explorer, he gave luster to the residence, which he wanted to enrich with telephones scattered in the greenery, with a roccolo and an astronomical tower built with the help of the director of the Milan Planetarium. In '38 Toeplitz died, and his wife sold it to a family from Legnano, who owned it until the 1960s, when it passed to the City of Varese.
Trivia
There were many famous people who enjoyed the hospitality of the Toeplitz family. Among them were members of the House of Savoy, the Count of Turin, Polish composers, well-known entrepreneurs such as the engineer Puricelli (to whom we owe the stretch of highway between Varese and Milan, the first in the world inaugurated in September 1924), the Agnellis, the Falcks and Matilde Serao. D'Annunzio is also rumored to have passed through here. What is certain is that director Cesare Canevari chose the villa and park to film some of the scenes of the 1968 film "A Hyena in a Safe."
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