Villa Saporiti is located in Como directly overlooking the lake of the same name. One of the most important neoclassical villas in the history of the Borgo Vico, was built on a project by Leopoldo Pollack between 1783 and 1793. Even the designer Luigi Cagnola participated in subsequent interventions that included the staircase of honor with two flights.
The building is known as “la Rotonda”, due to the presence of the exedra corresponding to the elliptical hall built at the center of the building and whose volume emerges from the frontal façade of the lake. Villa Saporiti presents itself with a monumental aspect, while maintaining a simple structure and sober external decorations. In 1783 the Milanese Marquises Antonio and Eleonora Villani bought the area from the public domain in 1783 to create a holiday residence. In 1950 it was bought by the Province of Como, which made it its institutional headquarters and which, with the purchase of the adjacent villa Gallia, determined the current structure of the entire complex.
The interior is full of refined stuccos and decorations of the rooms that are still visible today, such as the finishing details of the wooden doors to access the premises. The Hall of Honor represents a double-height elliptical plan, the lowered dome is characterized by lacunars containing rosettes in perspective with neoclassical decorative stuccos. On the ground floor is the Emperor’s Hall, the Etruscan Room with vaulted ceilings and richly decorated walls frescoed with blue-framed squares containing grotesques. The Library has sober hues and decorations both for the walls and for the wardrobes, the small living room is located at the western end of the villa, with an elliptical plan and decoration re-proposes the main salon on a smaller scale. The original furnishings of the villa have been lost but the historic rooms display furniture and objects of furniture in neoclassical style coming from the antique market, from Villa Camilla di Domaso or from other villas owned by the Province, such as Villa Porro Lambertenghi or Villa Amalia. Paintings, tapestries and sculptures from different historical periods, cataloged and partly exhibited in the halls or in the provincial offices.