Villa Panza

Villa Panza, known worldwide as a center for contemporary art, has origins dating back to the 18th century, when Marquis Paolo Antonio Menafoglio identified the top of the Biumo hill in Varese as the ideal site for his country home. Enlarged thanks to subsequent interventions by Luigi Canonica in the early 19th century and Piero Portaluppi in the 1930s, the mansion took on a new purpose when Count Giuseppe Panza from the 1950s began to create a collection of 20th-century art, which over time became known worldwide. More than 150 works by American artists, inspired by the themes of light and color, coexist in harmony with the antique rooms, Renaissance furnishings and valuable collections of African and pre-Columbian art. A perfect dialogue that reflects the insight and sensitivity of Giuseppe Panza, who identified the clear and almost transcendent light of the place as the guiding principle of his artistic choices. Emblematic in this sense is the rustic wing, which now houses a stunning gallery of site-specific environmental artworks, almost a temple consecrated to the element of light. Prominent among these are works by Dan Flavin, whose collection boasts the largest concentration of perennially exhibited works, James Turrell and Robert Irwin.