Villa Maffei

The noble Maffei family owned the estate since the first half of the seventeenth century, with Girolamo who, in 1696, left it to his son Alvise; the Maffei remained owners of the “Ca’ dell’Ara” properties until 1920 when they passed to the Antonello family, who eventually sold it to Guglielmo Turco. The latter, together with his wife, having lost their only son at 22 in a car accident near Bologna, decided to donate the residence with the adjacent agricultural land to the congregation of the Stimmatini fathers, keeping the memory of the young Mino alive. Currently, the villa houses the “Cappelletti-Turco” secondary school. 

Access to the villa is through a monumental entrance portal from the eighteenth century; beyond the gate lies a large parterre garden, adorned with box hedges, framing the main façade of the noble residence, characterized by a neoclassical design. The architectural layout, determined on a single main axis, respects the geometric rules of the period, such as the airy access staircase with a stone balustrade leading to the entrance door and the imposing balcony, also with a balustrade, located on the first floor. Throughout the large façade, windows are arranged according to a tripartite compositional rhythm, in the center and on the sides. The villa develops over three floors: the ground floor, better recognized as the raised floor, is indicated by a stringcourse that runs flush with the architrave of the arched windows, while a second double band, composed of two raised frames, corresponding to the proportions of the balcony, indicates the noble floor.
At the top, above the central opening of the second floor, the heraldic coat of arms of the Maffei family proudly stands.
Inside, the villa is composed of a layout typical of manor houses, with a large entrance hall and lateral rooms that follow in sequential order. On the noble floor, other rooms, now used as classrooms, lead to the former ballroom with walls decorated with frescoes and a marble balustrade on the shorter sides.

There are other rustic buildings that comprised the estate, such as the stables, to the right of the main house, designed by Ronzani, a notable Veronese architect, and the accommodations for the workers. To the left, in the immediate vicinity of the dovecote tower, survives a marble jamb “curved at the upper part recalls the old access to the brolo located at the back of the palace.” The building is surrounded by a park that is over a century old.