Villa Bocaccini and The House of Laughing Windows
These days at the Manifattura dei Marinati in Comacchio, the testimonies of cinema in the area are on display with the exhibition The Park in Cinema. We have been inspired and decided to take you on the traces of Villa Boccaccini, protagonist of the film by Pupi Avati The House with Laughter Windows.
The grand villa of the 1700s, now destroyed, was located a few steps from the Romea state road, near Lido degli Scacchi. Although the famous film from 1976 has masterfully exalted the mysterious and fascinating atmosphere of the Comacchio valleys, in reality the shutters shaped like a smiling mouth did not belong to Villa Boccaccini, but to a smaller house that for a long time was thought to be near Lido di Volano, while in reality it was located in Malalbergo.
The interiors and the precious frescoes present in the film were instead authentic and testified how the villa had become over the years one of the most significant examples of Italian Liberty style in the territory of the Po Delta.
In a short time, after the making of the film, Villa Boccaccini transformed: first into an icon of the collective imagination, then into a location much loved by cinema enthusiasts and finally into an increasingly abandoned place left to itself. The decline involved the beautiful gardens and frescoes, damaged by vandals and a large fire.
In the years of great fame, stories of ghosts and curses related to the Boccaccini family also spread, and some claim to have witnessed strange phenomena such as lamps that turned on by themselves and the impression of entering a spine-chilling timeless space.
Unfortunately, the villa has been razed to the ground, but its fame and the legends related to its history continue to fascinate like few others in our territory.
The grand villa of the 1700s, now destroyed, was located a few steps from the Romea state road, near Lido degli Scacchi. Although the famous film from 1976 has masterfully exalted the mysterious and fascinating atmosphere of the Comacchio valleys, in reality the shutters shaped like a smiling mouth did not belong to Villa Boccaccini, but to a smaller house that for a long time was thought to be near Lido di Volano, while in reality it was located in Malalbergo.
The interiors and the precious frescoes present in the film were instead authentic and testified how the villa had become over the years one of the most significant examples of Italian Liberty style in the territory of the Po Delta.
In a short time, after the making of the film, Villa Boccaccini transformed: first into an icon of the collective imagination, then into a location much loved by cinema enthusiasts and finally into an increasingly abandoned place left to itself. The decline involved the beautiful gardens and frescoes, damaged by vandals and a large fire.
In the years of great fame, stories of ghosts and curses related to the Boccaccini family also spread, and some claim to have witnessed strange phenomena such as lamps that turned on by themselves and the impression of entering a spine-chilling timeless space.
Unfortunately, the villa has been razed to the ground, but its fame and the legends related to its history continue to fascinate like few others in our territory.