Recoaro Terme

Recoaro has been one of the most popular health spas in Italy since the nineteenth century. Nietzsche, Radetzsky and Giuseppe Verdi were among some of the more illustrious guests, as well as important politicians and various members of the Habsburg imperial house. Margherita di Savoia stayed at the health spa in the Villa Tonello for a few weeks in 1879. The Villa Tonello is a real architectural jewel designed by the architect Antonio Caregaro Negrin and was built around 1865.

Built in a beautiful panoramic location, in the setting of a romantic park in the health spa complex, its designs ushered in a new style, which gave rise to protoliberty towards the end of the century. The villa with its panoramic tower with its numerous arched openings is embellished with stucco decorations that harmonize with its nature setting. Other stuccoes enhance the facades with baroque motifs that blend harmoniously with other decorative elements. Together with the large Stabilimento dei Bagni, also designed by Caregaro Negrin, the Villa Tonello-Margherita in Recoaro represents one of the most significant architectural achievements that preceded the belle époque.

Later decorations and architectures in Art Nouveau gave a new look to the whole urban structure of the health spa, which assumed the appearance of a small ville d’eau where the neoclassical taste gradually replaced an aesthetic model based on graceful curves, floral patterns, wavy lines often associated with the plant world and a combination of various imaginative elements.
Today, a walk through the streets of Recoaro can still reveal a surprising number of signs that testify to the past of this famous health spa resort nestled in the mountains of the Alto Vicentino.

The Bathing Establishment