- Art & Culture
Ugo da Como Foundation
Set on the green morainic hills of Garda, in the heart of the village of Lonato, stands the monumental complex of the Foundation
Nestled on the green moraine hills of Lake Garda and the ancient borough of Lonato, the Ugo Da Como Foundation includes the proprierties of Brescia's Senator Ugo da Como (1869-1941), who destined his last home as a place for culture.
Starting in the late Twentieth century, the ancient municipality became the mayor's residence and it is nowadays an important testimony of bourgeois housing style and taste.
The house-museum he built is an eloquent example of collecting preferences of the time.
The Ugo da Como Foundation offers suggestive guided tours among twenty completely furnished environments, including an extraordinary Library with abouth 52000 books. The rarest, most valuable ones are from the XII e il XIX century, this inculdes a well assorted colelction of drawings and prints, scrolls, various documents and 48 letters by poet Ugo Foscolo to his beloved Brescian countess Marzia Martinengo.
Ugo da Como commissioned a new, curious building in 1923 with the sole purpose of storing this precious book collection.
It is possible to find during the visit examples of Brescia's school of painting: three frescos by Girolamo Romanino, a tablet by Paolo da Caylina the young, a painting by Luca Mombello and compositions by Giorgio Duranti, plus a rare work by Gaudenzio Botti.
The museum-house and Library are encircled by a lush garden that goes up to the castle, the Visconti-Venetian Fortress, considered by local strategists as a model fortification, praised even by Napoleon Bonaparte. A splendid sight of Lake Garda can be enjoyed from its imposing walls.
The Fortress hosts the Gustavo Adolfo Carlotto Ornithological Museum.
