Villa Mapelli Mozzi

History

The original medieval monastery came into a cadet branch of the Mozzi patrician family, through the marriage in 1460 between Giovanni Filippo Mozzi and Caterina Comenduno. Having fallen into disrepair by the 17th century, their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Count Enrico Mozzi (1733–1800) who married Francesca Alamanni, renovated the estate between 1770 and 1780 with the construction of a new Palladian-style Villa Mozzi.

Its design, inspired by the Royal Villa of Monza and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, is attributed to local architect, Giovanni Moroni, a follower of Giuseppe Piermarini.

Count Giovanni Battista Mozzi (1768–1813), their elder surviving son, married in 1788 Angela Baglioni, daughter of Giovanni Paolo Baglioni (Podestà & Capitano of Chioggia); the nuptial mass at Bergamo Cathedral was led by his uncle, Luigi Mozzi. His first wife, Countess Angela, died in childbirth leaving an only child and heiress, Angela Mozzi (1790–1851) married in 1809 to Dott. Girolamo Mapelli (1785–1842), whose offspring assumed the surname and arms of Mapelli Mozzi.

Their son married Ippolita Giulini di Vialba (1827–1887) becoming jure uxoris Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi (1815–1879), the father of Paolo Mapelli Mozzi (cr. Count Mapelli) whose wife was Enrica Tarsis (1866–1941), brother of Giampaolo Tarsis, I Conte di Castel d'Agogna (cr. 1927).

Created by Letters Patent in 1913 as a hereditary Count of the Kingdom of Italy with remainder to all male descendants, the Counts Mozzi were granted as an additional surname to the title by Regio Decreto in 1935, becoming formally styled as Count Mapelli Mozzi.

The family estate also comprises another Villa Mapelli Mozzi located at Casatenovo, between Bergamo and Lake Como.

Legacy

The interior of the Ponte San Pietro villa comprises a large staircase leading to a piano nobile frescoed by Vincenzo Angelo Orelli, Paolo Vincenzo Bonomini, and Agostino Comerio. Stylistic enhancements to its late 18th-century design were overseen in 1927 by the architect, Ludovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso.

The Villa Mapelli Mozzi has long held the family's significant art collection, formerly curated by international art dealer Count Alex Mapelli Mozzi, whose daughter-in-law is Princess Beatrice.

Among the family's other notable descendants are Count Carlo Mapelli Mozzi (1889–1966) whose wife was Princess Beatrice Barberini (1906–1983), and Marchesa Carmela Pallavicino née Mapelli Mozzi (1895–1947).