When you're the scion of a wealthy industrial family, you have to offer the love of your life more than just a box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers. And that's exactly what Augusto Pesenti did for his lovely wife, Camilla Donadoni. When he married her, he gave her this magnificent Art Nouveau villa as a wedding gift, which still captivates the imagination 130 years later...

Villa Camilla was built around 1895 to a design by architect Virgilio Muzio, who had built several villas for the Pesenti brothers. The building has a cube-shaped base, so that all sides of the villa are equally important and overlook the beautiful park that surrounds it on all sides. Muzio designed the villa in his characteristic Neo-Renaissance style, with a return to Renaissance elements such as stepped gables, string courses, and horizontal lines in the façade. This style, also known as Historicism, also embraced influences from the French and Italian Renaissances, with rich façades, columns, and round arches. The Neo-Renaissance style was popular from about 1860 to 1914.

The extensive use of concrete is clearly visible throughout the structure. The use of stone was, after all, out of the question, as the Pesenti family was known for their major innovations in the use of Portland cement, a cement with exceptional properties suitable for both construction and decoration, produced nearby in their own cement factory (see also: Cementificio ). Concrete was used in the villa's concept for both the foundations and for finishes such as columns, capitals, bas-reliefs, and even tiles.