The chapel and the garden

The tradition largely spread in the 18th century required the construction of a chapel or small church so that the people from the surrounding neighbourhood could go to mass. In fact Gabriele’s reorganization starts with the building of an oratory. The octagonal small temple has a magnificent plasterwork inside executed by Giuseppe Montanari, painter and architect from Bologna and pupil of Ferdinando Bibiena. The chapel has pronaos with four ionic columns of decisive neoclassical line.
Inside on the baroque altar with plasterwork designed by the Marquis in 1743 (but probably on previous sketches by Montanari) an altarpiece by Giovan Battista Marcola is placed, while other paintings by Taddeo Taddei decorate the walls.

Every important Villa used to be surrounded by a garden. Place of delight, it also has a representative role and it used to be considered the immediate continuation of the façade of the Villa itself. At Villa Dionisi, after the different reorganizations and the transformation in the eighteenth century of the garden into a park in the English style - interesting with its rich and rare vegetation -, nothing remains of the original traditional Italian garden.
In May 1748 the “selese da riso” and the “barchessa da secarlo” were built. They stress the integration of residence and agriculture and their construction was not only a necessity but was also aimed on the enrichment of the court.

In the park the former lemon cellar is converted into a restaurant, situated in the silence of the countryside and in the peace of the garden although connected to the Villa itself.
The drawing rooms with their frescos, the park and the restaurant form an ideal place for weddings, parties and meetings.