Paolo Antonio Menafoglio. Born in Marzio (Varese) on the 13th of October 1700, a rich banker, he had numerous financial interests: in Modena and the lands of the Duchy of the Este family as well as in Milan. A nobleman from Modena, in 1749 he was conferred the title of Marquis of Barate by Maria Theresa of Habsburg (1717-1780). In the same year Francesco III d'Este invested him with the title of Marquis of the fief of S. Martino di Spino, Gavello, Portovecchio, Bellaria and Feniletto. Although the centre of his activity was far from his birthplace he nevertheless remained attached to the region of Varese, as it demonstrated to both by the works of embellishment which he had carried out at the Villa di Biumo, and the reconstruction of the parish church of Marzio (which he financed in 1739). Marquis Menafoglio well represents the vita di villa della Varese settecentesca, villa life of eighteenth-century Varese, one of the places most in vogue for the sojourns of the Milanese nobility as is excellently illustrated, for example, in the lyrics by Domenico Balestrieri.