Villa dei Cedri (Parco Termale del Garda)

Villa dei Cedri is a Neoclassical residence set within a walled English-style park at Colà di Lazise. The historic estate now forms part of the Parco Termale del Garda, whose landscaped grounds include lakes fed by thermal springs discovered in 1989.

Why it matters

The estate combines the history of a noble residence with a nineteenth-century landscape garden and a more recent thermal development. The park extends across nearly 13 hectares, with a pebble boundary wall and an informal English-style layout. Deep drilling in 1989 found two aquifers, later certified as mineral and oligomineral waters, changing the property's use while preserving its historic setting.

What to notice

The park-facing façade has an Ionic pronaos and a tympanum bearing the Miniscalchi-Erizzo arms. The older Giuliari-Moscardo residence retains sixteenth-century arched windows and a turret. Within the grounds, a winter garden has an iron-and-glass dome; a grotto decorated with shells contains a bust of naturalist Ludovico Moscardo and a statue of Fortuna. A 2003 survey recorded more than sixty species of trees and shrubs, including Torreya californica and Taxodium mucronatum.

Context and history

The estate belonged to the Giuliari family from the sixteenth century. Through marriage it passed to the Miniscalchi in 1785; the 1808 marriage of Luigi Miniscalchi and Marianna Erizzo was followed by a major transformation of the property. The Neoclassical villa is attributed to architect Luigi Canonica. The park reached almost 13 hectares around the mid-nineteenth century. After several changes of ownership, SOGEO acquired the estate in the 1980s. Thermal springs discovered by drilling in 1989 led to the development of the modern park.