Panorama Lodge - La Casa dei Gelsi

The project that led to the realization of the Panorama Lodge “La Casa dei Gelsi” was born in 2018, when the Zanini family decided to detect a large site at the limit of the nucleus of the village of Scudellate, at the top of the Valle di Muggio, to renovate it in the development of the Albergo Diffuso del Monte Generoso. The building was built by the families of Gabriele and Antonio Cereghetti in 1890, when still mountain peasant families used terraces as the only agricultural resource to survive the difficult living conditions in the valley and was inhabited by their descendants until 2018. The ancient residence borders the old house of Swiss guards (dogana) and is located along the path leading to the Italian border. A path that, in the period of World War II and after war, was routed by many people, who transported goods and brought with them joys and sufferings that marked an era and gave Scudellate a small important role in their history.

The renovation of the property lasted 4 years and were particularly challenging. The aim of the Zanini family was to maintain the historical character of the house, but the main difficulty was the internal spaces, organized with two vertical apartments composed each by a myriad of small rooms that allowed a time to maintain the heat sources as close as possible to people. For this reason the renovation could only be partially conservative, while several internal parts were renovated maintaining the parameters and materials, but realized with the knowledge of our time. In particular, all exposed walls made of stone at the end of the 1800s by the Cereghetti brothers, have been worked and today value the interiors of the “Casa dei Gelsi”. The large building overlooks a garden and terraces once...