Palazzo Arese Borromeo

The present Palazzo Arese Borromeo was built at the behest of Bartolomeo III Arese (1610-1674), who was a key figure in 17th-century Lombard politics under Spanish rule: he held the offices of President of the Senate of Milan and President of the 'Consejo de Italia'. Moreover, thanks to a series of arranged marriages, he became head of a formidable alliance of Milanese noble families such as the Borromeos, the Omodei and the Visconti di Brebbia.
Apart from his undisputed political importance, Bartholomew III Arese was a man of great culture and he not only left his mark on his personal life choices, but also charged the Cesano complex with values and meanings. Having always remained the property of the Borromeo Arese family over the following centuries - until its acquisition by the Municipal Administration of Cesano Maderno in 1987 - it has almost entirely preserved its 17th-century aspects.
The vast frescoed surfaces, numbering 33 rooms - far more than those of the Borromeo family's Isola Bella - are the work of artists of the highest Milanese classicism: from Ercole Procaccini il Giovane to the Montalto brothers and Antonio Busca, from Giuseppe Nuvolone to Federico Bianchi, and concluding with the architectural quadratures by Giovanni Ghisolfi.