Villa Flecchia Pirol plays host to a precious collection of more than 60 artworks dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Here, the stunning mountainscape that can be glimpsed through the windows reappears in the artworks hanging on the walls, all painted by highly accomplished artists.

Donated to FAI by Piero and Franca Enrico in 2011

Built between 1955 and 1970 and featuring simple architectural lines, Villa Flecchia Pirol is sited in a spectacular location overlooking the Canavese area. The impressively furnished interior of the villa houses a valuable collection of 19th/20th-century paintings, compiled with great passion by the architect Piero Enrico and focusing on the works of artists who were leading lights of the Piedmontese painting scene in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The collection encompasses an array of styles, ranging from the beautiful, sentimental landscapes of Antonio Fontanesi, to the abstract compositions of Friuli native Luigi Spazzapan. The common thread linking up the various approaches taken by these painters is a shared passion for the landscape. The paintings seem to be engaged in a sort of “beauty contest” with the extraordinary panorama that can be admired from every window of the villa. The jaw-dropping view takes in the flat plains – where the lush woodlands and cultivated fields afford brief glimpses of small towns and villages – and extends all the way to the horizon, interrupted only by the mountainous reliefs of the morainic range of Ivrea.

In 2011, Piero and his wife Franca decided to donate the Villa to FAI, the intention being, as Piero put it: “To preserve for the future what I have collected with love and sacrifice during the course of my life”