The name recalls a monumental elm tree that once towered over the park: that tree is gone today, but the villa that bears its name remains one of the most imposing examples of neoclassical architecture on Lake Como, open to the public as a venue for exhibitions and cultural events.
The land on which it stands originally belonged to a convent and was purchased in 1664 by the Como nobleman Marco Plinio Odescalchi. It was Marquis Innocenzo Odescalchi, however, back in Como from Rome, who decided to build the present villa: the work, entrusted to the Ticinese architect Simone Cantoni, began in 1797 and was completed in 1812, producing a building with the sober, elegant layout typical of neoclassicism. On Innocenzo’s death in 1824, the property passed to the Raimondi marquises and, in 1883, to the Visconti di Modrone dukes, before being ceded to the Comune di Como between 1924 and 1925.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries the villa hosted prominent figures: Napoleon Bonaparte stayed there in 1797 with his wife Josephine, who returned as empress in 1805, while in 1859 Marquis Raimondi received Giuseppe Garibaldi there, of whom he was a friend and supporter. The façade, designed by Cantoni, preserves its original neoclassical layout; the interiors house period stuccoes and frescoes, while the Italian-style park facing the lake is adorned with statues and a fountain. Since 1925 the Comune di Como has used the villa as a venue for exhibitions, conferences and cultural events – including, in 1927, the international exhibition marking the centenary of Alessandro Volta’s death – while the park, with around 800 trees including horse chestnuts and cedars of Lebanon, is freely open to the public.