An Abandoned Baroque Mansion

Villa de Vecchi, Cortenova - Lombardy

Ur-Romanticism

Out of pure ennui, a rich English noblewoman had the whim to do something for the poor. So she gave a great sum to her administrators to use for charity. Once, she travelled the continent for a few months, and upon her return found out that instead of the familiar grimy hovels of her beneficiaries, there now was a construction site where they built houses a school and a hospital. “Mon Dieu! What have they done to my beautiful, quaint slum!”, she exclaimed.