San Giovanni in Croce, Villa Medici del Vascello

This bulky building was built on a fortress structure, of which it is possible to recognise the shoe-shaped base and the angular towers. Such building was built in 1407 by Cabrino Fondulo, the pitiless master of Cremona, to defend the town from Parma and Mantua, enemy towns. The fortress was then renovated and transformed by Cecilia Gallerani, the favourite of Lodovico the Moor made famous by the portrait painted in 1492 by Leonardo da Vinci and titled “The Lady with the Ermine”. In 1492 the Lady married the local lord. In late 16th century, the castle was further embellished with the addition of the manner loggia and the balcony. A turret surmounted it in the 18th century, when the princes Soresina-Soranzo made the park picturesque and renewed the building, which was then given to the Medici del Vascello. The park, today partly deprived of its trees, dates back to the second decade of the 19th century. It is a Romantic, English garden, featuring eclectic buildings and landscapes that evoke exoticism and past, a lake where regattas took place, Gothic ruins and a Chinese pagoda, an Indian temple, a Dutch hut and a Doric temple. The villa, now a municipal property, hosts prestigious events.