Villa Taparelli
Address and contacts
Via Carletti - 42015 CorreggioOpening times
The villa is private and can only be viewed from the outside.
How to get there
Correggio
By car
Driving along the A22 Modena-Brennero motorway, exiting at the Carpi tollbooth and following the directions for Correggio (then following the SS468 towards the south);
using the A1 Milan - Bologna motorway, exiting at the Reggio Emilia tollbooth and following the signs for Carpi-Correggio (taking the SS468 in a northerly direction).
By train
The closer railway station to Correggio are Reggio Emilia (about 20 km) and Carpi (about 7 Km)
By bus
From Piazzale Europa - Reggio Emilia, bus n. 43 or 82
Historical notes
The building has a broad front with two projecting side bodies comprising the stables, the chapel, and the adjacent out-buildings. The façade is surmounted by a tower.
According to tradition, during the Renaissance period, this building was the “brothel of delights” of Nicolò da Correggio. It was situated along a branch of the mill canal which was used for gardens' watering.
Built in the first half of the 19th century using pre-existing elements, it has an imposing volume with quadrangular plan on two floors plus attic. The roof has a central addition with pediment crowning. The façade features an archivolt portal with decorative elements comprising two caryatids and heads with profiles of noblemen.
Windows are regular and symmetrically distributed, distinguished at ground floor by an arch motive, and at "piano nobile" (first floor) by a tympanum decorative motive. Four tall polygonal chimneys stand against the façade in the spaces between the windows.
A portico with one flat arch, with balustraded upper terrace, connects the building to the oratory.
The east-facing façade has a simple profile contoured at the top by a moulded cornice.
The rear face has an attractive portal with niche and statue of a saint, architectural decorations and bell-gable at the top.
Villa Taparelli has hosted princes, noblemen, poets such as Ariosto and Tasso, and the emperor Charles V. The chronicles describe the role of the country residence as a place of delight, culture, and hospitality, as well as a “machine” for increasing the alodial property and apparatus for provisioning of choice goods.
Numerous count’s acts were drafted directly “ad Caxinum extra portam S. Joannis” and in 1518 a “codicil” to the will of Gilberto Da Correggio was drafted “in camera philosophorum” frescoed by Antonio Allegri.
The street is of considerable environmental interest for both the villa gardens and the hedges that line it.