Villa Beatrice

Once you have left Argelato behind along Via Centese, two pillars, a wrought iron gate and a tree-lined road will lead you to Villa Beatrice, which is named after Countess Beatrice Lanzi Facchini, the wife of the latest owner of the villa Enea Facchini. A plaque has been dedicated to her since her death in 1884 over the door of the small chapel overlooking the outside loggia.

The Angelelli senatorial family had the villa built in the second half of the sixteenth century, then sold it to the Zambeccari family (of which heraldic motifs appear in the frescoes of the villa) that owned it till 1850. After the villa had changed three owners, it finally belonged to the Facchini family, whose last representative donated it to the Ricovero di Mendicità (Poorhouse) of Bologna (today it is known as Istituto Giovanni XXIII) in 1943.

Although some parts of the villa date back to different historical periods, the villa looks harmonious as a whole: didactic-moralistic paintings by the famous decorator Cesare Baglione are kept in the four halls on the north side of the villa in memory of charitable, cultural works of the noble family of Argelato; agricultural, hunting and fishing scenes by a Baglione's collaborator working at Villa Sampieri-Talon too are portrayed in the four halls on the east side of the villa.

The villa is made up of three floors: kitchens as well as dining rooms were on the ground floor, the noble family used to live on the first floor (piano nobile) and use it as a reception, representation room and the second floor served as an access area.

The surrounding park of the villa, which once hosted a fish pond, includes a hillock that was used to preserve food. According to Renaissance principles, a particular tree arrangement was expected to create sudden changes of temperature in the various parts of the park resulting in a microclimate that created gentle breezes between all the halls of the villa.

Villa Beatrice has belonged to the Comune di Argelato since 1996.

Owing to recent restoration work, the villa opened to the public in 2009: from then on, it has been hosting cultural events like meetings, exhibitions and the presentation of books as well as food&wine tasting.