Villa Poss was once one of the most famous mansions on Lake Maggiore.
Standing on a site between Intra and Ghiffa and bought at the end of the 18th century by Marquis Luigi Caccia-Piatti of Novara, the house was built in several stages throughout the 19th century, but always kept as its distinguishing feature a medieval-style tower. Among its residents were successively one of Napoleon’s ministers (Giuseppe Prina), a Count Casanova from Vercelli, two industrialists from Intra (Giuseppe Frova and Carlo Franzosini), a Polish prince (Josef Poniatowsky), and in the 20th century Alessandro Poss, an entrepreneur from Trentino. |
The villa, which enjoys one of the most picturesque views in the entire lake area, took on its present form after alterations made to the designs of the architects Pietro Bottini and Francesco Galli in 1860-64 and 1868-70. The grounds too were of major interest. They reached their present extension of almost six hectares in 1889, when the villa was owned by Marquis Adalberto Barbò di Soresina, and included a wealth of features: greenhouses, artificial grottoes, dells, footbridges, a gazebo, stables, and a wide variety of trees and shrubs.
For years now Villa Poss and its grounds have been unforgivably neglected and left in a progressively ruinous state. 
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