Villa Regina Margherita

The Villa Regina Margherita di Savoia is a museum site located at 34 via Romana in Bordighera, on the Ligurian Riviera in the province of Imperia, Italy. Originally constructed as a private summer residence for Queen Margherita of Savoy, the villa has since 2011 housed the art collection assembled by Milanese industrialist and collector Guido Angelo Terruzzi. The building is protected as a cultural heritage site by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Paesaggistici della Liguria, the regional superintendent of architectural and landscape heritage. Though it served briefly as an exhibition center following restoration, the villa is currently closed to the public.

Queen Margherita of Savoy first arrived in Bordighera in September 1879, staying at the Villa Bischoffsheim on medical advice after the trauma of the 1878 attack on her husband, King Umberto I of Italy. She returned periodically, lodging at the Cap Hotel on via Virgilio, before purchasing the Villa Bischoffsheim, by then renamed Villa Etelinda, from its owner Lord Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, in 1914. Construction of her new villa within the park began on 30 March 1914 under architect Luigi Broggi, with gardens designed by Prussian landscape architect Ludwig Winter and Belgian hydraulic engineer Paul-Vincent Levieux. Work concluded in late October 1915, and the villa was inaugurated on 25 February 1916. The queen spent annual residences from May to December until her death at the villa on 4 January 1926, aged 74. Her body was transported to Rome for burial in the Pantheon. The House of Savoy donated the property to the National Association of Families of Fallen and Missing in War. On 12 February 1941, the villa hosted a meeting between Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini regarding Spanish entry into the war on the Axis side. The city of Bordighera and the Province of Imperia acquired the villa on 16 September 2008. Restoration began in June 2011 with support from the Terruzzi Foundation, and the villa opened as an exhibition space housing the Terruzzi collection. However, the Terruzzi Foundation withdrew in June 2015, returning the property to the province and municipality, after which it closed to the public.

Specific individual works in the Terruzzi collection are not documented in detail in the available sources, though the 2012 exhibition highlighted twentieth-century Italian modernism. The villa itself retains notable decorative features from its royal period, including original stained glass windows decorated with the double royal coat of arms of Queen Margherita and King Umberto I of Savoy. The windows were designed at the queen's request by the painter Carlo Bazzi. Overdoor decorations depicting the queen's favored Savoy residences, Palazzo Margherita in Rome, the Savoy Castle in Gressoney-Saint-Jean, and the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi, also survive. The original elevator cabin, restored, has been preserved and placed near the dining room on the ground floor.

The villa was designed by Luigi Broggi in a neo-baroque style inspired by the eighteenth century. Its structure comprises a basement, ground floor, two upper floors, and a large rooftop terrace connected by a walkway to the upper garden. The basement housed service facilities including laundry, ironing rooms, and technical equipment for the elevator and heating. The ground floor contains an atrium, audience hall, library, reception room, and dining room, with a concealed opening leading to the queen's private chapel. A grand staircase illuminated by large windows ascends to the upper floors. The first floor contained the queen's apartment, consisting of a hall, office, private bedroom, and bathroom, surrounded by three smaller apartments for her lady-in-waiting and royal family members. The second floor accommodated the palace lady Countess Maria Cristina Pes, the queen's First Gentleman Prince Emilio Barbiano di Belgioioso d'Este, and guest rooms. Broggi equipped the villa with modern amenities for its time, including an elevator and individual bathrooms for each room, though only the queen's bathroom was retained during later restoration. The gardens were laid out by Ludwig Winter with hydraulic assistance from Paul-Vincent Levieux, who had previously designed the gardens of Villa Etelinda. A section was reserved for roses, including a place of honor for the rose Reine Marguerite d'Italie, bred in 1904 by the Belgian nursery Soupert & Notting in the queen's honor.

The Villa Regina Margherita is located at 34 via Romana in Bordighera. The property is owned by the city of Bordighera and the Province of Imperia. Following restoration by the Terruzzi Foundation from 2011 to around 2013, the villa operated as a museum and exhibition center housing the Terruzzi collection. However, after the Terruzzi Foundation withdrew in June 2015 and returned the property to its owners, the villa was closed to the public and remains closed. The website http://www.fondazioneterruzzivillamargherita.it was associated with the foundation's management of the site.