A fief of the Della Porta counts in the 18th century, residence of the wife of King Carlo Alberto and later an Opus Dei spiritual retreat house: the castle overlooking the lake’s first western basin is about to open a new chapter, as a luxury hotel of the Belmond-LVMH group.
The origins of the building are not entirely certain: it may stand on the ruins of an earlier fortification, but its documented history begins in 1731, when the Della Porta counts received Urio as a fief. Passed to the Castelbarco family and then to the Dupuy family, the castle came in the early 19th century to the Melzi d’Eril family, who gave it its current name and completed its layout, arranging the park with a staircase and a distinctive bridge running down to the shore. It later belonged to Maria Teresa of Habsburg-Lorraine, wife of King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia, and then passed to the Avogadro di Collobiano family, who hosted King Vittorio Emanuele II and Queen Maria Adelaide there shortly after their wedding. In 1871 the Richard family carried out a further restoration and expanded the gardens.
The building consists of a rectangular three-storey block, with a central section rising to four storeys; the façade is marked by Ionic pilasters, a curved tympanum, a balustrade with statues, and piano nobile windows alternating with broken and segmental pediments. Since the 1950s the castle – with 180 metres of lake frontage and a park of around 1.9 hectares – has belonged to Opus Dei, which has used it as a house for spiritual retreats and for the initiatives of the Fondazione RUI, and it is therefore not open to visitors except on scheduled occasions. In July 2024 the property was acquired by the Belmond group, controlled by LVMH, which plans to turn it into a luxury hotel, joining other properties in the group’s portfolio such as the Cipriani in Venice and the Splendido in Portofino.