Villa Bernasconi, one of the rare examples of Art Nouveau architecture on Como lake and the only villa in Cernobbio open to the public, was built between 1905 and 1906, designed by the architect Alfredo Campanini for the engineer Davide Bernasconi, who founded the homonymous silk factory in Cernobbio. Villa Bernasconi is one of the most significant Italian works in art nouveau style with beautiful decorations and details depicting the life cycle of the silkworm. The Villa is the main character of our story, self-narrating its history and the stories of people who lived there. Today the villa is an innovative museum which makes an emotional connection with visitors by considering them first and foremost as house guests rather than simply museum-goers. The museum is a “talking house” which tells visitors its own story and that of the people who lived there. The first story told is that of the villa’s first owner, Davide Bernasconi, a visionary entrepreneur and the founder of the Bernasconi silk factory, which operated from the 19th century to 1971. Our guests are invited to feel right at home and walk around the villa at their leisure, guided by #vocidivilla (the voice of the villa). They will be immersed in a new, multi-sensory and interactive experience full of fascinating digital and multimedia history where they can even rummage through drawers and answer the phone.

The first time I appeared in the papers it was April 1906. The journalist wrote that I was a true artistic jewel. To be honest, people liked me a lot, especially the people that lived here because I was a welcoming and comfortable home. The basement included the kitchen, the wine cellar and the laundry. On the ground floor were the day rooms that included a smoking lounge. The bedrooms were on the first floor and the servants quarters were up in the attic. The Bernasconi family lived here until 1955, at which point I was sold, together with the park, first to the CET Company, then to Salvi, which ran urban public transport. And that’s when the changes began. The garden was made smaller and the gatehouse and the greenhouses were demolished to make space for garages for the buses and a petrol station on via Regina. Later the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) needed rooms, bathrooms and a dining hall for its headquarters staff. Radio antennas were then installed on the roof of the turret. Finally, in 1989, I was purchased by the town council for the sum of 400,000,000 Lire which in today’s money would be worth around 207.000 Euro, and I was fitted out to house council offices. The newspapers, and now even the internet, still talk about me, because now I’ve been restored all sorts of new things will be happening around here.

I don’t stand on the lake front, nor am I close to the old town centre. My architecture is radically different to that of the other Villas of the late 1800’s, both by design and decoration. If that might seem strange, you have to consider that Cernobbio is very different now to how it was in my day. In 1906 it was very clear to everyone that I had nothing in common with other Villas in the Eclectic Style, those intended as seasonal holiday homes. Here people lived the whole year round! I was positioned just to the south of the new town that was growing with buildings being erected around the old nucleus of the original textiles mill: offices, warehouses, factories, workers homes and infant schools. To the north, on the other side, was the first home of Ingegner Bernasconi, who had made way for his eldest son Leopoldo when, in 1905, the latter was married to Rosita Pusterla. In an article published in La Provincia Illustrata of 1906, the journalist did not include me in a list of the most notable or historical residences of the area, unlike Villa Pizzo, Villa d’Este and Villa Erba, but rather referred to in relation to the Bernasconi Textiles plant, which was classified as one of the principal wealth creating industries of Cernobbio. The new town was already well on its way to modernity; it had street lighting, gas, a tramway as well as being a favourite tourist resort for the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie of Europe and America, who would holiday in its many luxury hotels.

Engineer Bernasconi was clearly very “modern” and nonconformist in entrusting the design for his new house to Alfredo Campanini. Why choose him in particular? Perhaps it was because the young architect was working for Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone, the husband of Carla Erba, planning the faux-Medieval village of Grazzano Visconti in the Province of Piacenza? Maybe the two men even met at the home of the Visconti family here in Cernobbio, or perhaps in Milan, during the preparations for the Sempione International Exhibition of 1906, where both Campanini and Bernasconi were separately participating. What is certain is that Bernasconi wanted him … possibly because Giuseppe Sommaruga, the fashionable Lombard architect of the times, was otherwise occupied in various building projects right here by Lake Como? Whatever the motive, the fact is that Campanini designed a square building, but every aspect of symmetry or regularity was thrown out of the window, thus avoiding any kind of static or unitary profile; he employed both straight lines and curves, with differing architectural orders and variations in the use of structural systems. And then he dressed me with decorative plaster both inside and out! The use animal forms in the decoration of Art Nouveau architecture was not new, but it is extremely rare to find such attention to detail in the iconography, what’s more considering such a close relationship with the working life of the client. Together with the other decorations, the wrought iron and the stained glass, you could say that I am a “complete” work of art.

I want to tell you the story of my architectural style. Art Nouveau originated in 1893, when Victor Horta opened the homes of the Belgian bourgeoisie to fresh air and light through the use of wrought and cast iron. He conveyed the malleable character of metal by choosing abstract curves as his ornamental motifs that were then also reprised in frescoes and mosaics. Nature, curves and movement were the basis of the new style, to which was added the rediscovery of Japanese art towards the end of the 1800’s, where the linear fluidity, the asymmetrical compositions, lack of geometrical prospective and the application of delicate chromatic undertones created a new decorative lexicon. Art Nouveau interpreted the new lifestyle of the Bell’ Époque and tried to embellish the everyday lives even of those less affluent. Its creators took into consideration the production methods of traditional craftsmanship, and applied it to produce the high quality models required by industry to improve the aesthetics of mass-production, given that craftwork and many art forms were expensive and accessible only to the wealthiest. Art Nouveau spread rapidly across the whole of Europe, albeit in diverse forms, often taking new names, “Modernism” in Catalonia, “Jugendstil” in Germany and “Sezession” in Vienna or Prague. In Italy it was called Liberty thanks to the great popularity of the emporium of the same name founded in London in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty, who himself participated in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Decorative Art in Torino in 1902.

The definition of Art Nouveau is related to styles that emerged in many countries in Europe at about the same time, around the end of the 19th century. Their local names were often used in their respective countries to describe the whole movement: Jugendstil in German, Stile Liberty in Italian, Modernismo catalán in Spanish. Villa Bernasconi is precisely a jewel of Liberty style, newly restored and accessible by visitors. We want to highlight an important and original example of art nouveau architecture in Italy. At the same time we want to focus on the importance of the textile industry in the past century. The museum holds memories of a factory and society model that now no longer exists. The villa is a welcoming unconventional and accessible cultural place that actualizes the relationship between past and present by transmitting messages of innovation and dynamism. Moreover, the villa itself was an example of "modernity" for the era in which it was built. The setting up was conceived to offer a comfortable space and to make the visitor empathize with the narration through the references between past and present, with particular attention to the themes of fashion and design, peculiar characteristics of the territory on the Lake of Como. First of all, the perception of the museum as a welcoming, modern, luminous and interactive place. The chance to learn in a fun and surprising way. Regarding the local community, the re-discovery of history. Thanks to the laboratories children are educated, through the memories kept by the museum the elderly feed their memory and they receive importance. The museum becomes a place where everyone can interact. Direct and important involvement of the local population for the reconstruction of the historical context and museum contents. With children and teenagers, we are activating a loyalty programme through the organization of various activities: children and teachers can do lessons in the Villa and we offer many educational and artistic workshops. For disabled people our museum is an inclusive experience.