Villa Carlotti-Canossa

Villa Carlotti-Canossa stands at Scaveaghe on the road from Garda toward Punta San Vigilio. Built by the Carlotti family of Verona on the site of an earlier limonaia, the villa is set within a garden of cypresses, laurels and lawn extending toward Lake Garda.

Why it matters

The villa represents the country residences that shaped the lake's historic shoreline. Its architecture and garden belong to a landscape where cultivated estates met the water. The villa is also associated with Marchesa Alessandra di Rudinì, whose life connected Garda with the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

What to notice

The municipal account describes the villa as a typical example of eighteenth-century architecture. The garden's old cypresses and laurels frame the building, while the open lawn links the estate visually to the lake.

Context and history

The Comune di Garda places construction between the second half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth, attributing the villa to the Carlotti family and noting an earlier limonaia on the site. Alessandra di Rudinì married Marcello Carlotti and later lived at the villa. Local chronicles recount her relationship with D'Annunzio. After her sons' deaths, she entered a Discalced Carmelite convent in France in 1911. The property later passed to the Canossa family, whose name became joined to Carlotti in the villa's present name.