The Abode

Since the fifteenth century there are archival documents that attest to the presence of the locality called Carrara. In 1411 the bishop of Verona, Guido Memo, renewed as a fief to Antonio and Nicolò de Banaverijs the concession of three parcels of grassland, arable land with fruit trees and vineyards and woodland with ledges pertaining to Carrara. The settlement center consists of a farmhouse plot on the bank of the progno, probably to be identified with the complex to the right of the provincial road, while a certain «Consa de Colognis» appears among the neighboring ones. In 1444 an «Olibonus q. censa de Colognis» progenitor of the noble Oliboni family, undisputed lords of the upper Valpantena throughout the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century. Various successions took place over the centuries between the Oliboni family and in 1670 the daughter of Giulio Oliboni, Isabella, and his wife Andriana Manfredi inherited all the assets of «villa Grezana in contrà di Carrara».

In the deed certifying the inheritance, drafted with extreme precision, the house in Carrara appears to be made up of a vat and a caneva overlooked by a room, a place on the ground near the kitchen and the kitchen that opens onto the courtyard, adjacent are the servant's room and a place above it, the settlement complex is complete with stable. It seems that the widow Andriana frequently stayed in the house in Carrara, paying it much attention, even after her second marriage to Count Lodovico Lazise, owner of other properties in the area. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the ownership of Villa Carrara was divided into two: on one side Laura Oliboni, widow of Francesco Maria Mezzanelli, who owns part of it with arable fields as a dowry, and on the other the widow Andriana Oliboni. In 1698, the latter ceded to Francesco Maria Mezzanelli, son of Laura, and prior father of the Augustinians in Verona, the possession called "La Carrara" with temporary lease of the fields, the vegetable gardens and the manor house with the obligation to expand and maintain the property and the Sunday house.

In fact, he carried out many improvements to the house, such as the large library and the prestigious art gallery, as well as the construction of a small church.

After the Augustinian father's death, the house was made up of a kitchen on the ground floor, an adjacent room used as a dining room, a staircase leading to the first floor where there is the picture gallery room which leads to the adjacent library, then an adjoining room and a tub, all richly furnished with paintings, furniture, books and precious objects.

Francesco Maria's successor is Count Giovanni Camillo Mezzanelli, owner of other properties in the lower Verona area; he continues the works of arrangement and expansion of the assets in the locality of Carrara. In 1765, after the death of Count Giovanni Mezzanelli,

son of Camillo, the assets with «brolo and dominical and collonic factories» pass to his son Francesco, who, in 1783, seems to have built them again for the most part. Subsequently, in 1792, as we read in the documents conserved in the State Archives of Verona, he sold to the Marquis Giò Batta Da Monte, who, with money obtained from a "satisfaction of dowry" from the noble Pompeii, became the new owner of the "possession with Domenicali and Rusticani factories, with a church dedicated to San Nicola with two Broli […]

known as Carrara». But for the Da Montes the property did not have this great importance and in 1799 it was sold to Giuseppe Marcantonio di Sanguinetto, who bought it to redeem a possession in the Lower Verona area, in Sustinenza, giving Villa Carrara in exchange to Count Don Gasparo Gaspari and his brothers of the congregation of San Filippo Neri of San Fermo Minore in Braida. In 1812, a drawing of the property was drawn up by the expert Antonio Serena. In the second decade of the nineteenth century, the property was sold again; in 1818 it was the turn of Giò Carlo Malaspina and his daughter Maria Carolina Alderaino. For the occasion, another drawing, by the hand of the engineer Andrea Maffei, was drawn up depicting the property, but the buildings are described in a very summary way (Frank Archive). There are two guidelines for the intervention of Abbot Malaspina and his daughter in the villa buildings

Carrara; an initial restoration of the buildings and a series of restorations to the road. Far more substantial, however, are the "expenditures necessary to reduce the buildings of Carrara to a usable state, to rebuild the fallen boundary walls and replace the threatening fall [...] It is necessary to remodel the roofs of both the holiday home and the rustic buildings formed in part , arelle and tiles [...] Towards the courtyard it is necessary to restore the grilles of the holiday home [...] the wooden gates that lead from the Court to the Brolo towards morning and to the Domenicale House as well as to the Gate for the oven room [...] arched window above the door of the Rusticane [...] in the kitchen [...] put the bucket back on». During these years the oratory of San Nicola continued to be officiated.

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From the mid-nineteenth century the Malaspina property expanded again. Even the last thirty years of the nineteenth century saw impressive restoration works for the Carrara buildings promoted without saving money, such as the erection of new buildings. The works are followed by the engineer Cesare Benciolini.

On the entire compendium of cottages, the large gastaldale building distributed over three floors stands out which in the substantial simplicity and rational distribution of the openings still preserves intact interesting architectural elements such as two ancient fireplaces and two elegant arched access arches, on the main façade flanked on the park, the largest of which is dominated by a smaller arched opening, also arched, with a balcony. On the side of the building, facing the manor house, the two large portals that led to the rooms on the ground floor probably used as cellars, where the beautiful vaulted ceilings are still visible. The interiors are very interesting, with wooden ceilings dating back to the 16th century. In the church, noteworthy are the pictorial decorations of 1807, by the hand of master Pietro Parolai, commissioned by Don Gaspare Gaspari.

The Villa, from 2019 to 2023, was expertly subjected to conservative restoration, carried out by the current owner La Spada Salvadori, who brought it back to its ancient splendor.