The complex was begun in 1808 based on a design by Carillo Rougier and his cousin Ambrogio Uboldo, the owner of the land. The latter, the son of bankers, was born in Milan in 1785 and served as a guard to Napoleon; he was a regular attendee of the famous salon of Clara Maffei and a friend of Hayez. A councillor of the Brera Academy, he was appointed a noble of Villareggio in 1838 for his cultural and charitable activities. A great collector and lover of art, after a rather pleasure-loving youth he led a more restrained life in its later years, both because he was struck by repeated family bereavements and due to the influence of Monsignor Biraghi. In 1857 Ambrogio founded the charitable institution (Causa Pia Ospitaliera) that bears his name; his will, drawn up on 30 April 1859, endowed it with funds for the construction of an “ospitale” – in the sense of a home for the elderly – which was inaugurated on 1 January 1877. Uboldo, who died on 21 February 1865, did not live to see it, but thanks to this institution he achieved immortality, at least in Cernusco. Today the architecture of the villa can be assessed mainly through an examination of the southern façade. The northern front, facing Via Uboldo, was in fact rotated for traffic reasons, so that the portico which once enclosed the courtyard now opens onto the street. The building recalls the architecture of Giuseppe Piermarini and Leopoldo Pollack, with close references to Pollack’s Villa Belgiojoso in Milan, albeit expressed in a more simplified language. The interiors were repeatedly renovated following the conversion of the building into a hospital. On the ground floor, the three central rooms with their original decoration remain. The frescoes, because of their distinctly Neoclassical character, can be dated between the first and second decades of the nineteenth century. The west drawing room features a monochrome frescoed vault with mythological episodes. In the corners are Allegories of the Arts and Sciences; of particular interest, in the south-east corner, is the presence of the letters A U (Ambrogio Uboldo, the patron). This is the only room that still preserves some period furnishings: a marble fireplace surmounted by a mirror. The main hall, oblong in shape, has frescoed overdoors depicting mythological deities within lunettes: Venus and Cupid, the Goddess Flora, Diana the Huntress. The vault is decorated with frescoed architectural ornaments and pairs of Dancers and Musicians within shaped medallions. The technique, a monochrome imitation of relief, is characteristic of Neoclassicism. The third room is covered by a frescoed vault with brightly coloured decorations inspired by Pompeian motifs, depicting trophies of arms, fruit, and flowers. The three halls were restored in 1971 by Felice Frigerio and again in 2014, returning the decorations to their original state. The villa was a “house-museum” and was in fact designed to house part of the art collections for which Ambrogio Uboldo was renowned. The valuable inventory drawn up before the dispersal of as many as 395 series of objects, which began in 1867, makes it possible to reconstruct the character of the collections. As far as figurative art is concerned, Uboldo’s choices were directed mainly toward artists who were his contemporaries. The collection thus represented an interesting testimony to collecting taste during the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism, with particular reference to the Lombard artistic milieu. Most of the paintings came from the Brera exhibitions, while others were commissioned directly by Uboldo from the artists. The most important nineteenth-century painter in the gallery was Francesco Hayez, with three works; the artist most widely represented, however, was Giuseppe Sogni, a friend of Uboldo and a professor at the Brera Academy, stylistically within Hayez’s orbit. Painters of views were also represented, such as Giovanni Migliara, Angelo Inganni, and Giuseppe Canella. The collection also included sculptors, almost all of whom belonged to the late Neoclassical movement. The most prestigious name was Pompeo Marchesi, represented by a statue depicting Hebe; the artist present with the greatest number of works was Giovanni Emanueli, author of bust-portraits of various members of the Uboldo family and of the colossal statue of Saint Ambrose (1864) erected in the garden. Among the works of ancient art were a Portrait of Julius II by Titian, some Saints by Cima da Conegliano, and a Nativity scene by Gaudenzio Ferrari. The collection was sold to meet the operating expenses of the Hospital. Very few pieces remain in their original location; among these are two portraits by Giuseppe Sogni: the Portrait of Ambrogio Uboldo of Villareggio in the costume of a knight of the Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (1854), in which he appears with his dog in front of the villa in Cernusco, and the Portrait of Ambrogio Uboldo in the uniform of the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown, standing in his armoury. The gallery of ancient weapons that Uboldo kept in his Milan residence on Via Pantano was the crowning achievement of his collecting activity and the most complete in Milan. In March 1848, during the Five Days of Milan, the armoury was looted by patriots; a tempera painting by Carlo Bossoli, now in the Museo del Risorgimento, commemorates the event. Subsequently, in retaliation, the palace was destroyed by the Austrians. Text taken from: Nel cuore di Cernusco sul Naviglio. Tre passeggiate nel centro storico by Elisabetta Ferrario and Mauro Raimondi (Book Time – Libreria del Naviglio, 2016).