THE HISTORY
The Gardens of Villa Togni (formerly known as Villa Averoldi) will once again participate in this year’s Sundays at Villas, Palaces and Castles initiative, following restoration funded by the Italian Ministry of Culture’s PNRR programme. To mark this special occasion, visitors will be able to access not only the gardens, which are regularly open to the public, but also the Gallery and the Conspiracy Room, accompanied by the owner Giulio Francesco Togni, director of the Domani l’Aurora association.
The visit.
The guided tour spans five centuries of history, beginning in the elegant French-style garden, where tall hornbeam hedges and formal flowerbeds frame the Villa’s façade, and continuing into the English-style park created in the early twentieth century and enclosed by a monumental gate designed by engineer Dabbeni. The visit then proceeds upstairs to the Gallery and the Conspiracy Room, the Villa’s most remarkable interior, decorated in the seventeenth century with a celebrated fresco cycle by Ottavio Amigoni, Pompeo Ghitti and Angelo Bracco. This commemorates the Guelph conspiracy of 1426, when Brescia’s nobles gathered in Gussago to free themselves from Visconti rule and and align with Venice.
The gardens.
The gardens. Highlights include extensive rose collections in the English-style park, a historic olive grove, an orchard and the unique presence of seventeen trompe-l’oeil frescoes painted between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In May, the roses reach their peak bloom, while in October the gardens hosts an early-music festival reflecting the site’s long-standing musical vocation.
The Villa.
Originally built by the Averoldi family in the fifteenth century, the Villa was expanded in the seventeenth century with a distinctive rusticated-column portico – an unusual feature in Brescian architecture – and redesigned in neoclassical style in the late eighteenth century. Acquired in 1906 by Commendatore Giulio Togni, grandfather of the current owners, it later became the residence and creative centre of composer Camillo Togni, a key figure in twentieth-century Italian music.
Photographic material: © Archivio Togni, Gussago.
