Salone Console

Site overview

The Art Nouveau (Liberty) hall is one of a kind: built between 1930 and 1932 by Mario Console to host the parties that were habitually organized at that time in turn by the numerous valley vacationers and the wealthy of the area, it is the only private building used exclusively for this purpose. Receptions, in fact, were usually organized within the villas themselves, as well as in the parks during the summer season, in specific rooms but of much smaller dimensions, in hotels, or in “clubs” financed by the vacationers themselves, which however were exclusively seasonal and were used for alternative purposes for much of the year. Mario Console’s family played a major role within the village of Germagnano; a wealthy and influential family, lovers of art and archaeology, generous in their offerings to the nursery school, the church, and the municipality, they cultivated important friendships and organized parties that remained impressed in the imagination of the village’s population. So much so that even today, more than fifty years after their passing, many still keep photographs and remember details that have proven precious for this work, given the scarcity of archival documentation. The hall is part of the Villa Console complex consisting of the villa itself, the adjacent Villa Marina, the park, and the hall—elements contiguous to each other but already divided at their birth due to the configuration of the already urbanized area.