Villa Giustiniani

The Villa Giustiniani-Odescalchi with its attached 23-hectare park was purchased by the state in 2001.
The fiefdom of Bassano, formerly owned by the Anguillara family, was sold to the Giustiniani family in 1595. Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, a banker, collector and intellectual, was responsible for the expansion and renovation of the palace, as well as the design of the garden and park.

The important decorative cycle on the piano nobile attests to the various and most up-to-date artistic trends of the period, with the presence of Bernardo Castello from Genoa, Paolo Guidotti from Lucca, and Domenichino and Francesco Albani from Bologna.

Returning from his trip to Northern Europe, impressed by the gardens he visited, Vincenzo had work done to level, rationalize and expand the greenery. The seventeenth-century design of the park is still legible: from the "de' quadri" garden, walking along the main avenue, marked by three squares, one reaches the turreted Rocca turrita, or hunting lodge, a petrified heraldic emblem placed at the end of the main axis perspective.