The Last Notes of a Lost Piano. by Roman Robroek - Photos of Abandoned Buildings

About "The Last Notes of a Lost Piano."

by Roman Robroek - Photos of Abandoned Buildings

About the artwork

This abandoned room belongs to a 19th-century villa built for a leading figure of the Italian Risorgimento. He led the National Guard, took part in major historical uprisings, and wanted a quiet retreat shaped by his travels across Europe. The villa was completed in the late 1850s by an architect known for eclectic architecture. Its design blended classical revival styles with Eastern influences, from neo-Greek to neo-Moorish inspirations. The walls were thick, the structure solid, and the decoration refined. Inside, the owner filled the rooms with objects brought back from his journeys. Outside, a park and large garden surrounded the residence, complete with a fountain that later disappeared.

From the 1930s onward, the villa began its long decline. It was abandoned by the original family, later occupied by displaced people, then sold, looted, and vandalized. Throughout the 20th century it gained a reputation as a “haunted” place. Stories of ghosts, unexplained suicides, and occult rituals became part of local folklore, despite official sources confirming none of it ever happened.

The piano remains on the floor are part of those legends. People spoke of music echoing at night from a room where a piano once stood. Its presence helped shape the building’s modern myth, shared widely again when international media listed it among the world’s most mysterious abandoned houses. Today the villa is unstable, overtaken by vegetation, and largely inaccessible. Restoration would cost millions, and geological risks make intervention difficult. Still, its history, architecture, and mythology keep it alive in the imagination of anyone who steps inside.