Parco Pallavicino

Villa Pallavicino Park occupies a landscaped estate between Stresa and the hills above Lake Maggiore. Its grounds combine a nineteenth-century villa setting with arboretum plantings and a collection of animal enclosures established in the twentieth century.

Why it matters

The estate reflects successive phases of landscape design and use. Ruggero Bonghi began the garden in the nineteenth century; the Pallavicino family later expanded and reshaped the grounds. Its transformation into a zoological park in 1956 added a new function to the historic estate.

What to notice

The park's arboretum includes chestnuts, liriodendrons, copper beeches, maples, larches, ginkgoes, sequoias and magnolias. Tree-lined avenues and long views toward the lake structure the grounds. The villa itself is a neoclassical residence at the centre of the estate.

Context and history

Ruggero Bonghi acquired land at Sabbion in 1855 and enlarged the estate the following year. The Pallavicino family acquired it in 1862, developing the carriage roads and rebuilding the villa in a neoclassical form. On 7 August 1956, the grounds opened as a zoological park under Lodovico Pallavicino. The estate later became part of the Borromeo family's group of properties; its current management details are not included here.