VILLA BECKER [IT]
Exploration #157. This villa has its origins in the seventeenth century but its current majesty dates back to the early twentieth century, when it was completely rebuilt by Sir Walter Friederich Becker, a diplomat and important businessman. The exterior was designed by the famous Art Nouveau architect Pietro Fenoglio and the interior decoration (including the furniture, frescoes and table) was executed under the direction of Ernesto Domenico Smeriglio in the Neo-Baroque style.
Sir Walter Becker died in Turin in 1927 at the age of 73. The pale widowed Lady Delphine remarried in 1935 to the Marquis Demetrio Imperiali di Francavilla, thirty years her junior. They continued to live in the villa at Valsalice during the war and even generously converted it into a refuge for displaced persons. When Delphine died in 1943, her second husband inherited her large fortune and later remarried twice more, squandering everything.
There is no precise information on the exact date of the abandonment of the villa. Currently, after being completely emptied and partly vandalised, the house is being renovated. In 2007, Dario Argento set the final scene of the film ‘La Terza Madre‘ here.
