Nicola Bertellotti could be accused of breaking and entering. But in his defense, rather than the act being a crime, he makes it instead into an art form. The Italian photographer is a chronicler of the abandoned and the forgotten—villas and hotels, palazzi and manor houses, many of which are in Italy, but also elsewhere in Europe. Through the lens of his digital camera, Bertellotti understands that ruins can be the most complete of structures, able in their partial states to evoke the full histories of their architecture and occupants who were once present. As he says of his work, “Houses have their soul.”

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WRITTEN BY DAVID MASELLO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICOLA BERTELLOTTI

This story appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of MILIEU