Villa Carlotta

The Clericis

Portrait of Antonio Giorgio Clerici (in Marc'Antonio dal Re, Ville di delizia, Milano 1743)

The building of the villa was begun in 1690 by the Milanese Giorgio II Clerici (1648-1736). The Clerici family, originally from the north of the Como Lake area, accumulated a great richness thanks to the textile trades of Giorgio I (1575-1660) and his sons Pietro Antonio (1599-1675), who was titled as Marquis, and Carlo (1615-1677) who became owner of numerous palaces in Milan and Brianza. Carlo’s son, Giorgio II inherited fabulous richness and an important social position; he became senator in 1684 and in 1717 he was nominated as President of the Senate. He conceived the villa in Tremezzo as a real manifesto of his family success. His 21 years old great-grand son Antonio Giorgio (1715-1768) inherited his immense fortune and completed the building of the villa.

Villa Carlotta, front (in Marc’Antonio dal Re, Ville di delizia, Milano 1743)

Antonio Giorgio, Baron of Sozzago, Marquis of Cavenago, Knight of the Golden Fleece and Milanese patrician had an intense life: charming, owner of a regiment of infantry, generous and squandered, collector of masterpieces of art (he ordered, for example, to Tiepolo the frescos for his house in Milan) he died in 1768, after having dissipated all his richness. Claudia, Antonio Giorgio’s daughter and Earl Vitagliano Bigli’s wife, was the last of the Clericis to own the villa in Tremezzo. She sold it to Gian Battista Sommariva in 1801.