The emotion of a story
Palazzo Loup, more anciently Villa delle Fratte, is an ancient 18th-century residence located in Scanello (municipality of Loiano), 30 km from Bologna. The Villa, with its sober lines, is surrounded by an extraordinary centuries-old park.
In the last century, the moral Lordship of Scanello was held by Monsieur Luigi Loup, a Swiss agronomist nobleman in love with Bologna. He married a noble Bolognese woman from the Ghisilieri family and received the Villa delle Fratte (formerly belonging to the Calderini family and later passed to Pio Ghisilieri) as a dowry.
The villa's past is rich in historical events, such as the one in May 1805 when Pope Pius VII, on his way to Rome, stopped at Villa delle Fratte on his way back from Paris, after having crowned Emperor Napoleon I.
A trace of his passage is the marble bust depicting him, placed on the steps leading to the main floor.
A further historical testimony, which the walls of the Villa have skilfully preserved, is the plaque on the first floor of the Villa.
It brings back the memory of the Secret Convention of Scanello, held in 1859, to agree on the abolition of customs barriers between the kingdoms and duchies that formed the political structure of central northern Italy, on the eve of the reunification of the kingdom under the sovereignty of Victor Emmanuel II.
The conference was attended by the most important figures on the political scene of the time: Marco Minghetti, Bettino Ricasoli, Luigi Carlo Farini, Leonetto Cipriani and Rodolfo Audinot.
The walls of Palazzo Loup thus saw the foundations laid for the first administrative act that led to the birth of the future Kingdom of Italy.
Modern restorers have given Palazzo Loup a new charm, without erasing its tradition of hospitality and friendliness.