BIANCHI, Giovanni Battista
(b. 1631, Verona, d. 1687, Verona)

Villa Allegri: Façade

1656
Photo
Villa Allegri Arvedi, Cuzzano di Grezzana

The imposing Villa Allegri complex looks out on an elaborate Italian-style garden. It was built around 1656 by the Allegri family, nobility from Verona, on the site of a preexisting sixteenth-century structure. It was designed by the Veronese architect and sculptor Giovanni Battista Bianchi. A double-ramp staircase leads to the adjoining oratory which was rebuilt in its current form in the early eighteenth century. In 1824 the entire property was acquired by Antonio Arvedi, a wealthy industrialist from Trento.

The main hall of the villa and the oratory was decorated with frescoes by Louis Dorigny in c. 1719.