The Villa began to decline in the 20th century. The estate had stood empty for many years and by 1986 was in a distressing state. The buildings were in a highly dilapidated condition. Almost all of the roofs had come down, walls and vaulting had collapsed. Many of the century-old frescoes had been destroyed by water. The shape and original structure of many of the rooms at times could only be guessed. Even the church had been ransacked and an enormous thicket of thorns covered facades and gardens.
Was
it chance, luck or fate that we - a circle of friends from Germany and Italy -
discovered Villa Palagione during the spring of 1986? The villa was in a frightful
state and when - just after we had signed the contract - the complete staircase
in the eastern wing came down with an infernal noise, almost nobody still believed
it could be done. An almost unbelievable task lay before us, but we kept our faith
and got down to work. Everybody teamed in and step by step - with the help of
craftsmen and friends - we started to restore Villa Palagione.
During
the restoration work we took great care to preserve the historical structures
along with introducing the necessary modernizations, as well as using traditional
techniques to reconstruct the vaultings, frescoes and gates. The costly restoration
works were done without us receiving any grants and could only be realized by
summoning all our strength, resources and commitment, as well as the help of many
kind spirits that guided us along the way.
The
Arcades building, which was the easiest to reconstruct, already by September of
1988 served as the venue in which we started to realize our vision of an intercultural
centre. We began with offering Italian language courses and educational programmes.
The rooms we had already finished renovating were used as venues for seminaries
and conferences. In addition we kept renovating the villa room by room.
The refurbishing works took more than 10 years and were finalized 1996 with the inauguration of the new dining room.
Without our immediate intervention and careful restructuring Villa Palagione would have been doomed for sure.
Today the 400 years old medician Villa is filled with a new life of culture and encounter.
After
20 years we are happy about the things achieved, all the past and present successes,
which would have been unthinkable without our enthusiastic and faithful friends,
guests, sympathizing organizations and institutions, which in many different ways
assisted to save Villa Palagione and turn it into a center of culture and education
available to the public.
We would like to give our heartfelt thanks to all
of you who helped and are still helping.
