History of the Villa

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The Aldo Morelato Foundation was founded by the Aldo Morelato’s sons, who, as directing members of the Morelato company, have developed a passion for the production of furniture, continuing an important Italian tradition.
The Aldo Morelato Foundation has its offices at Villa Dionisi, a mansion from the 18th century, situated in the centre of the Verona plain (above, in the picture). This Villa Veneta has been brought back to its original splendour thanks to an important conservative restoration by the Morelato family.
The Villa is also the headquarter of the Outlook on applied arts in furniture, a research centre aimed at enhancing style furniture, which was born out of the necessity to enhance and spread the cultural and productive heritage of Italian furniture and in particular furniture from the Verona area.

Villa Dionisi, built in the 18th century arises in the middle of the countryside of Cerea, in the hamlet of Cà di Lago. The Villa, with its elegant structure, bears witness to a glorious past.
The idea of building their small Versailles in the Cerea area was motivated by the fact that the family needed a direct control over the land they owned and at the same time the Villa offered the possibility to unite relatives and friends, noblemen and men of letters in a rural but sumptuous ambience. The Villa saw a period of glory under the guidance of Marquis Gabriele (1719-1808) one of the most outstanding members of the Enlightenment society in the Verona area, and brother of the fine and cultured Dante expert, Monsignor Giacomo, canon of the Cathedral of Verona. Already in the 13th century Cerea was an important town with a podestà. Some members of the Dionisi family were well-known podest&àgrave;. Being an expert with a good commercial intuition Marquis Dionisi knew how to improve the rice crop during the flourishing period of the rice plantation. Gabriele Dionisi was not only the brain behind the agricultural innovations but also the man who decided the reorganization of the Villa using the existing structures. Although several consultations were made, it was the Marquis himself who choose the decorator, the famous Nicola Marcola and who decided on the themes of the decorations, not the saga of the antique heroes but the glory of the Dionisi line.
Some decennaries later, with the arrival of the French troops, the self-confidence of the Marquis, an old man at that moment, started to vanish as he noticed how his world was coming to an end.