Villa Carlotta owned by George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Sachsen Meiningen
In 1843, Princess Marianna, the wife of Prince Albert of Prussia, bought the property for 780,000 lira, ten times the amount paid by Giovanni Sommariva forty years earlier. Emilia Sommariva relocated to a smaller house in Tremezzo, while reserving for herself ownership of the Sommariva family chapel and mausoleum on the grounds of the villa.
In 1847, Princess Marianne gave the property to her daughter Charlotte as a wedding present upon her marriage to Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914). The house was re-named Villa Carlotta, however Charlotte enjoyed the villa for only a few years before she died in 1855 at the age of twenty-three of complications from childbirth.
In 1857, the author Ludwig Bechstein wrote a description of the villa which was published as  Villa Carlotta. Poetische Reisebilder vom Comersee und aus den lombardisch-venetianischen Landen.
The Sachsen-Meiningens used the property as a private holiday home. While they didn't make substantial changes to the building, they sold part of the art collection that came with the property. Duke Georg, who had a passion for botany, dedicated himself to the development and enrichment of the garden, introducing a great variety of rare and exotic species. The Duke was a patron of the composer Johannes Brahms, who visited the villa at the Duke's invitation several times in the 1880s. Duke Georg died in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I.