Pompeo Mariani Villa

Behind the historic center of Bordighera, a gate opening onto a magnificent olive grove leads to the Villa of Pompeo Mariani, a Lombard painter among the protagonists of the artistic life of Bordighera between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Mariani (Monza 1857 - Bordighera 1927), an impressionist-style painter, worked intensively between the Ligurian Riviera and the Principality of Monaco, creating numerous paintings and sketches of landscape and worldly subjects.

In 1909, the painter purchased this elegant villa attributed to Charles Garnier, from Countess Fanshawe. In 1911, Mariani had an atelier built among the trees by architect Rodolfo Winter (son of the gardener Lodovico Winter), which he called "La Specola". Here, many friends, collectors, and admirers came to visit him, including Queen Margherita.

In the Park of Villa Mariani, three points where Monet set up his easel in 1884 can still be seen today.