In 1882, the construction of the Gottardo railway line, from Milano and Genova, unified the fate of the territory of the upper Lombard Verbano: the entire coastline was crossed by the railway, giving concrete form to the area's aspirations towards tourist and industrial development already underway in the preceding decades.

A tourist vocation and significant economic growth, amid remarkable infrastructural undertakings at the end of the 19th century, an entrepreneurial class committed to the progressive development of the territory and inclined to express it through an appropriate and novel style, and, not least, a corps of technicians, engineers, architects and master builders ready to bring back to their homelands the echoes of the most advanced trends: these were the premises of the Liberty season on lago Maggiore.

Liberty, which in Luino confirms the driving role of this town on the shores of lago Maggiore — capable, thanks to the construction of the railway station along the Gottardo line, of finding all the energy needed to support and relaunch the opportunities offered by the new infrastructure: in 1884 the town completed a broad urban plan to connect the ancient hilltop nucleus with the distant station on the alluvial plain of the river Tresa, and the municipality itself financed with 11,000 lire the construction of the narrow-gauge railway station to Ponte Tresa (and Lugano). That same year the first Grand Hotel was built, and existing hotels were renovated with new comforts. In 1885 the Banca Popolare was founded, while the mid-19th-century industrial plants doubled their floor space and renewed their appearance.

Luino, one might say, made itself — with grace, with elegance and with open-mindedness: the two tourist guides printed in 1903 and 1910 are its symbol: elegant in their graphic design, rich in flowing lines and graceful female figures, and careful in their content — precise and attentive to the various nuances of an area perennially poised between lake and mountain, between holiday resort and rural culture — they encapsulate the aspirations of these places to present themselves with a fresh and contemporary face.

The building momentum that swept Luino following the construction of the international station continued uninterrupted until the eve of the First World War: the gaps along the broad avenues leading to the station were filled in, forming, in effect, an entirely new town set against the ancient inhabited nucleus.

The lakefront promenade of viale Dante, laid out from 1898, completing a double row of plane trees that over time has taken on monumental proportions, was configured as the ideal stage on which to display, on the façades of villas and apartment buildings, a style befitting the rank of a bourgeoisie eager to secure one of the most pleasant locations in the country: thus the transition from the display of a sometimes refined eclecticism to the new style came naturally.

Villa Guerrini

The villa is one of the first works designed by architect Giuseppe Petrolo in Luino. This villa, like others of the period, would later serve as inspiration for the design of Palazzo Verbania. 

Villa Guerrini, dating from 1902, is characterised by a broad and confident use of smooth walls (that is, devoid of relief decorations, as academic tradition required), by wave-pattern decorative motifs incised into the plaster and, as later in the Kursaal, by the termination of volumes with flat-roofed terraces. The villa is located on the road leading to the Swiss border. Along the same street, other notable villas can be admired.

Villa Guerrini

The villa is one of the first works designed by architect Giuseppe Petrolo in Luino. This villa, like others of the period, would later serve as inspiration for the design of Palazzo Verbania. 

Villa Guerrini, dating from 1902, is characterised by a broad and confident use of smooth walls (that is, devoid of relief decorations, as academic tradition required), by wave-pattern decorative motifs incised into the plaster and, as later in the Kursaal, by the termination of volumes with flat-roofed terraces. The villa is located on the road leading to the Swiss border. Along the same street, other notable villas can be admired.