Medici villas and gardens in Tuscany - Ville e giardini medicei in Toscana

Medici villas and gardens in Tuscany is an itinerary that takes place through the Tuscany.

Introduction

The Medici villas are rural architectural complexes that came into possession of the family in various ways Doctors between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries in the surroundings of Florence and in Tuscany. In addition to being places of pleasure and leisure, the villas represented the peripheral "palace" on the territory administered by the Medici, as well as the center of agricultural economic activities in the area in which they were located.

In 2013, 14 villas and gardens were declared by UNESCO World Heritage.

Background

The first Medici villas are those of Trebbio and Cafaggiolo, linked exclusively to the control of agricultural land in the Mugello. In the fifteenth century Cosimo the Elder builds the villas of Careggi e Fiesole, where elements of entertainment begin to be present: courtyards, loggias, gardens. Lorenzo de 'Medici he used to reside for long periods in Careggi, where he died in 1492. Gradually the Medici "encircled" Florence with their villas, while in the grand-ducal period, there is a constellation of these architectural structures even in areas far from the capital of the Grand Duchy. The system of Medici villas constitutes a real microcosm around which the rituals of the Medici court took place. These villas best express the high level of Renaissance and Baroque architecture achieved in Tuscany, allowing comparisons on the evolution of styles. At the end of the sixteenth century the territorial system of the villas, with strong economic and strategic values, at least 17 main estates according to a historical-artistic profile. To these must be added other secondary ones, mostly of agricultural interest or held by the Medici for a very short time, for a total of about thirty real villas. The season of the Medici villas ended with Ferdinando I de 'Medici, who bought Montevettolini and Artimino, while also enlarging the Ambrogiana, the Petraia and Castello. The Medici villas are represented in a famous series of lunettes painted in about 1599 by Giusto Utens which today are in the Villa della Petraia and which are an irreplaceable document of how these residences looked in past centuries. Each member of the Medici family owned his own estate as a place of pleasure and representation, while the Grand Duke moved from one villa to another: for hunting he went to Pratolino, Trebbio and Cafaggiolo, in spring he stayed at the Ambrogiana, while in Artimino, which is located in the hills, he spent the July days in coolness. The gardens for which the villas are famous have a prime example in the villa of Castello, where Cosimo I had what is the prototype of Italian garden by Niccolò Tribolo, later also the author of the Boboli Gardens. Today the villas have various destinations: some are real museums (La Petraia, Poggio a Caiano, Cerreto Guidi) others are occupied by institutions (such as in Castello where the garden is a museum, while the villa is the seat of the Academy of Bran) still others have been sold or entrusted to private individuals, who keep them for private use or have them used as a setting for events.

How to get

Autostrada del Sole A1 Milan-Naples: exit at Barberino; continue on the SP 131 and then on the SP 8 to Barberino di Mugello. The itinerary runs through the provinces of Florence, Meadow, Lucca is Pistoia.

Stages

• 43.96483911.2949641 Villa Cafaggiolo a Barberino di Mugello (Private villa not open to visitors) - It is one of the Medici villas most linked to the history of the Medici. It belonged to the family since the mid-fourteenth century and was renovated by Michelozzo on behalf of Cosimo the Elder between 1428 and 1451. Vasari indicates it as Michelozzo's first project in one of the family villas, although some recent studies would place the nearby Villa del Trebbio as the one of the oldest restructuring. Around the outer wall perimeter a walkway supported by corbels is typical of the Medici residences of that era, such as Trebbio and Careggi. Instead, the original arrangement of the gardens, farms, roads, fountains and woods around the villa is more Renaissance. Usually inhabited during the summer, it was loved by Lorenzo de 'Medici, who resided there in his adolescence and often hosted his court of humanist philosophers. In 1537 the villa became the property of Duke Cosimo I, who enlarged it and built a large walled "Barco", where rare animals could roam freely. The role of the villa as a hunting lodge was even more emphasized by Cosimo's sons, such as Francesco I and Ferdinando I, who usually stayed there in the autumn months. In the sixteenth century some changes were made to the appearance of the villa including the addition of a building with a loggia at the rear of the villa.

• 43.95305611.2866672 Villa del Trebbio a Scarperia and San Piero (Private villa not open to visitors) - The villa is located in the area from which the Medici originated and was one of the first residences they had built outside Florence. It already belonged to Giovanni di Bicci de 'Medici, the patriarch of family fortunes. The estate was in a strategic position, from the top of a hill overlooking the Val di Sieve. After his death, his son Cosimo de 'Medici had his architect Michelozzo renovate what must have looked like a fortified castle. Vasari indicates it as the second to be restored, after the Villa of Cafaggiolo and before that of Careggi, whose works should have been carried out between 1427 and 1433. The layout of the villa is still linked to the medieval fortification method, rather than a pleasant and orderly place with a humanistic-Renaissance spirit. Michelozzo maintained or rebuilt the watchtower, with a solid structure and no windows, adding the walkway with corbels (as in the external perimeter), and also retaining other typically "castellan" elements such as the moat and the drawbridge. In the center there is a courtyard with a well.

• 43.85933611.3043363 Garden of Pratolino a Money order (Open garden) - The Medicean Villa of Pratolino was demolished in 1822, but was later bought by the Demidoff family of Russian origin, who used the secondary building of the pages as a new villa, enlarging and renovating it. The park, although distorted and stripped over the centuries, is one of the most beautiful and vast in all of Tuscany, among the most important in the English style. Although many original works of art have been removed over the centuries, the park still retains many of significant interest. These include: the Colossus of the Apennines by Giambologna; the Fonte di Giove, whose copy was placed by the Demidoffs at the end of the 19th century; the two sponge goals; the chapel designed by Buontalenti, with a hexagonal plan with an external loggia, near which the last princess Demidoff is buried; the Fonte del Mugnone, whose statue was sculpted by Giambologna (1577); the Peschiera della Maschera, also used as a swimming pool and equipped for hot baths; the Great Aviary; the Pheasant; the Grotta di Cupido, built by Buontalenti in 1577; the neoclassical Casino of Montili, built around 1820 by the architect Luigi de Cambray-Digny. Throughout the park there are centuries-old trees, including oaks, English oaks, cedars and horse chestnuts, real natural monuments full of charm.

• 43.81944711.2281834 Villa of Castello a Florence (Villa open to visitors) - It is located in the hilly area of ​​Castello in Florence, very close to the other famous Medici villa of Petraia, and is famous above all for its magnificent gardens, second only to those of Boboli. Today the villa can be visited only by reservation on special occasions because it is the seat of the Accademia della Crusca. The villa, which already existed in the 14th century, was bought to the Della Stufa family around 1480, by Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de 'Medici, belonging to the "populate" branch of the family, who enlarged and enriched it with works of art. 'art. Lorenzo, not to be confused with his cousin Lorenzo the Magnificent, was one of Sandro Botticelli's greatest clients: he commissioned La Primavera and The Birth of Venus precisely to decorate this villa, large paintings that today are the pride of the Uffizi. On the death of Giovanni di Pierfrancesco, the Villa was inherited by his widow and his son Giovanni delle Bande Nere who resided there with his wife Maria Salviati and their son Cosimo. In April 1527 the Duke of Urbino established his headquarters in the villa: he led an army made up of papal and French soldiers that Clement VII and Francis I had sent to help Florence, threatened by Charles V. In 1529 the Otto di Guerra and of Balia they ordered to destroy crops, houses, villas, churches, walls and trees around the city, to prevent the enemy from finding food, lodgings, buildings to fortify: even the inhabitants of Castello had to evacuate their village and run to Florence. The villa was sacked and burned during the siege of Florence (1529-1530), like almost all the other structures outside the city walls, but fortunately, compared to the other villas in the countryside, it suffered minor damage.

• 43.81896711.2366535 Villa La Petraia a Florence (Villa open to visitors) - The villa became the property of Cosimo I de 'Medici around 1544. From 1588 there was a decade of works that with powerful earth excavations transformed the "stony" nature of the place (hence the name Petraia, ie full of stones ) in a scenographic sequence of terraces dominated by the solid bulk of the main building. The villa mainly served as a residence, with respect to the representative function of the Villa di Castello or the hunting one of the numerous villas on the slopes of Monte Albano. This also explains the presence of utility plants, rather than ornamental ones, and the lack of statues and fountains. After the grand duke's wedding in 1589, the villa was assigned to his wife Christina of Lorraine. The villa passed to the prerogative of Don Lorenzo de 'Medici in 1609, who enriched it with the precious pictorial cycle of the Medici Fasti, a masterpiece by Baldassarre Franceschini. In the Savoy period the villa became the residence of Vittorio Emanuele II. The villa was again furnished, this time with a series of fine furniture that the Savoy family had "inherited" from the ruling houses of the Ancient Italian States after the unification of Italy. In 1919 the villa was donated to the Italian State, which assigned it, like other villas, to the Opera Nazionale Combattenti. The villa returned to the state in the 1960s and has since been the subject of a slow and demanding recovery project of both the structural parts and the furnishings.

• 43.80941111.2495226 Villa of Careggi a Florence (Villa open to visitors in the future - under restoration) - It is one of the oldest of the villas that belonged to the Medici family. In 1417 Giovanni di Bicci de 'Medici, the progenitor of the Medici fortune, bought some lands and possessions on the hill called Monterivecchi. It is the third country villa of the family, after those of Cafaggiolo and Trebbio in Mugello, and represents the nearest Florence, therefore also a strategically chosen purchase in greater proximity to that city center at the heart of the family's interests. These villas were also a place of rest and peace, but also real economic centers, which with agricultural activities could not only be self-maintained, but also represented secure sources of income. At first the villas were perched and fortified like medieval castles, then gradually they are relaunched as pleasant loci, where it is possible to practice intellectual idleness and healthy life in the open air. The Careggi villa was then restructured in a period of transition, the first half of the fifteenth century, between the rustic and fortified typology and the sumptuous and recreational one, open to the countryside and gardens. At the time of purchase, the Careggi estate consisted of a building with a courtyard, loggia, well, cellar, stable, tower, vegetable garden and two houses, as reported in the sales contract.

• 43.80571711.2891177 Villa Belcanto a Fiesole (Private villa that can be visited only on special occasions - inquire with the Municipality of Fiesole) - The villa was built between 1451 and 1457 by Giovanni de 'Medici, favorite son of Cosimo the Elder, and can be considered the precursor of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his nephew. Villa Belcanto is linked to the dramatic bloodshed of the Pazzi Conspiracy (1478), when some members of the Pazzi family plotted a conspiracy to get rid of the increasingly oppressive growth of the Medici power within the Florentine Republic. Originally the plan was to kill the two offspring of the Medici family, Lorenzo and Giuliano, during a banquet that they had organized right at the villa in Fiesole on 25 April, through the use of poison that Jacopo de 'Pazzi and the Riario would have hidden in one of the libations intended for the two brothers. But a sudden indisposition of Giuliano made vain the enterprise which was postponed to the following day, during the mass in Santa Maria del Fiore, where Giuliano was killed, while Lorenzo was daringly able to save himself by taking refuge in the sacristy. On Giuliano's death the villa was inherited by his elder brother. Lorenzo the Magnificent resided mainly in Careggi, but he also loved Fiesole very much: even here the large group of humanities used to gather around the Medici court. Lorenzo with Agnolo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Cristoforo Landino and other thinkers and writers, between readings, representations of ancient theater, and erudite discussions rediscovered the classical culture that is at the pivot of the artistic and literary renewal of the Renaissance.

• 43.76526411.2500948 Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens a Florence (Villa and garden can be visited) - Palazzo Pitti, one of the most prestigious in Firene, was the residence of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, already inhabited by the Medici. Inside there is a museum complex consisting of galleries and museums of various kinds: the Palatine Gallery (the art gallery preserves masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, etc.) arranged according to the criterion of the eighteenth-century picture gallery, the monumental apartments, the District d'Inverno and the Quartiere del Principe in Naples (normally not open to tourists), the Gallery of Modern Art (with the works of the Macchiaioli) and other specialized museums: the Silver Museum, dedicated to applied art, the Galleria del costume, the largest Italian museum dedicated to fashion, the Porcelain Museum and the Museum of carriages. THE Boboli gardens they are one of the best examples of an Italian garden in the world.

• 43.74917211.247439 Villa of Poggio Imperiale a Florence (Villa open on Sunday morning) - It is the Medici villa with a less Renaissance appearance, linked above all to the Baroque and Neoclassical period and is one of the few Medici villas open to the public as a museum, every Sunday morning. The villa was sold to the Salviati in 1548. Cosimo I confiscated it from Alessandro Salviati in 1565 due to his opposition to the Medici power. Cosimo gave it to his daughter Isabella and to her husband Paolo Giordano I Orsini. Isabella had a sad fate, killed by her husband in the villa of Cerreto Guidi in 1576, and the villa passed to the couple's son, Don Virginio Orsini. After a few changes of ownership, in 1618 it came to Maria Maddalena of Austria, sister of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg, who had married the future Grand Duke Cosimo II de 'Medici in 1608 and had arrived in Florence in October of that year. Between 1622 and 1625 it was completely renovated by the architect Giulio Parigi, who doubled the body of the villa towards the east and created a new facade with a loggia on the top floor and closed on the sides by two low terraced wings. On 2 April 1770 the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart held the only concert in Florence in the villa with the violinist Pietro Nardini, as a plaque in the entrance portico recalls. He played in a small room next to the Salone delle Feste (now called "Mozart's Hall" and used as a room for the girls of the boarding school and therefore impossible to see) on a harpsichord, impossible to see for safety reasons. From 1865 it became a female boarding school of the Santissima Annunziata and today it still houses the same school, which later became a secondary school of I and II degree and open to students of both sexes. Inside it also preserves a small museum with period scientific collections.

• 43.78185611.04429210 Villa of Artimino a Carmignano (Villa open to visitors) - The villa was built at the wish of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici for only four years, from 1596 to 1600 and is a masterpiece of the maturity of the famous architect Buontalenti. The unmistakable silhouette crowned by the numerous chimneys and chimneys dominates the surrounding area like a bastion towards the gorge where the Arno closes against the Gonfolina boulder. Without the mediation of a real park, the building fits directly into an environment that is partly wooded, partly agricultural, imposing itself with its geometric size. The villa was Ferdinando's favorite for the summer period and on the main floor it was frescoed by Domenico Passignano and Bernardino Poccetti with mythological subjects and alluding to the virtues of Ferdinand. For the grand ducal hunting activities, the great Barco reale was created, a huge bandit, recited by a high wall for about 50 km which had as its reference point and center of gravity, the villa of Artimino. In 1782 the villa was sold by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena to the Marquis Lorenzo Bartolomei and later passed by inheritance to the Passerini counts (1848); then it was sold in 1911 to the Maraini family. Around 1930 some changes were made to the architecture of the villa, building a new staircase and rearranging the garden. In the autumn of 1944 the villa was severely damaged by military artillery, but the restoration was timely and was already completed in the spring of 1945. Today it houses a conference and hotel center, while the Municipal Archaeological Museum of Artimino has been created in the basement.

• 43.81746111.05633311 Villa of Poggio a Caiano a Poggio a Caiano (Villa open to visitors) - It is one of the most famous Medici villas. Today it is state-owned and houses two museums. The villa is perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent, in this case from Giuliano da Sangallo around 1480. It is no coincidence that it is a private building, in which there are elements that later served as a model for future developments. the typology of the villas: interpenetration between inside and outside through filters such as loggias, symmetrical distribution of the rooms around a central hall, dominant position in the landscape, conscious recovery of classical architectural elements. The villa is located in the center of a hillock, the last offshoot of Montalbano, in a strategic position, stretching out as a promontory towards the Ombrone river and the plain and dominating towards the road between Florence and Pistoia, which here crosses the small hill. It was built by Lorenzo de 'Medici after having bought a farm for rustic use. Lorenzo commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to build a villa that became the prototype of the country mansion in the following centuries. In fact, Lorenzo, through his favorite architect, was among the first to conceive a rural space in which the territory was ordered and shaped according to the needs of harmony; in fact at that time the idea of ​​the villa-fortress began to fade. This new attitude was due both to political issues, thanks to the period of peace and stability reached by Lorenzo's politics, and to philosophical ones, according to the humanists who saw man as a shaper of the landscape in his favor, as a Platonic "demiurge". Among the original innovations for the time, there were the portico on the ground floor, the portico and the classical pediment on the main floor and the lack of a central courtyard. Gradually the villa was enriched with works in a continuum between architecture, painting and sculpture: the fresco by Filippino Lippi under the loggia on the first floor and, perhaps, the glazed majolica pediment attributed to Andrea Sansovino (which some historians refer to a second construction phase). Another building within the large estate also refers to Giuliano da Sangallo; it is a square and bastion structure, with a central courtyard, called "Cascine" which is located on the other bank of the Ombrone and which, as a center of agricultural activities, built before the villa itself, was its ideal counterweight in the overall design territorial. With the death of Lorenzo in 1492 the works on the villa were still largely unfinished and underwent a real arrest between 1495 and 1513, due to the exile of the Medici from Florence. The villa was only a third complete, the basement with the portico already complete and the walls of the first floor reached the tax level of the vault that was to cover the central hall.

• 43.85170610.9726512 Villa La Magia a Quarrata (Villa open to visitors) - The property passed to the Medici in 1583, upon the interest of Francesco I, who wished to gradually increase the landholdings of the family in the territory of the Grand Duchy. The position was particularly favorable because the hunting estate bordered on those of Poggio a Caiano, Artimino, dell'Ambrogiana and Montevettolini, in a system of satellite villas around Monte Albano. From 1584 it was renovated by Bernardo Buontalenti, with a rather simple appearance compared to other villas. The basic building had a quadrangular plan, with two bodies protruding at two diametrically opposite angles, without a garden but surrounded by a large park, which today has been partially absorbed by the growth of the town of Quarrata. Buontalenti limited himself to renovating the pre-existing elements, such as the internal loggia, which was buffered, the dovecote that was raised and the courtyard which was paved. The subsequent Grand Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici assigned it to Don Antonio, the illegitimate son of his brother Francesco and Bianca Cappello, while Ferdinando II sold it. In 1863 the last descendant of the Amati, Giovanni Tommaso, disappeared leaving his assets to Giulio Cellesi, as long as he assumed the double surname. The Amati Cellesi kept the villa until 2000, when it was purchased by the Municipality of Quarrata, which undertook a restoration work completed in 2005.

• 43.7586510.87926113 Villa of Cerreto Guidi a Cerreto Guidi (Villa open to visitors) - Located on a hill bordering the region of strategic interest of the Padule di Fucecchio; the villa was built on a previous castle of the Guidi counts, who left their name to the locality. The construction is due to Cosimo I, who had a rather simple hunting residence created around 1555, immediately after the inclusion of the town in the possessions of the Duchy of Tuscany. The construction on site was followed by the architect Davide Fortini, who in 1575 passed the baton to Alfonso Parigi the Elder, who presumably completed the building. The villa was often used in all seasons, both for hunting trips and as a stopping point for frequent trips between Florence and Pisa or Livorno. On July 15, 1576, the brutal murder of Isabella de 'Medici by her husband Paolo Giordano I Orsini took place in the villa. The woman was killed by strangulation as punishment for her infidelity. At the time the villa belonged to Don Giovanni de 'Medici, brother of Isabella, who on his death (1621) left his properties to his nephew Don Lorenzo de' Medici. After the death of Don Lorenzo, who had no children, the villa passed to his brother the Grand Duke Cosimo II, who gave it to his son, Cardinal Leopoldo de 'Medici (1671). With the death of Leopoldo (1675) the villa passed to the Grand Duke Cosimo III. Passed to the Lorraine after the extinction of the Medici family (1738) it was alienated with an act of 1780. In 1966 the then owner sold it to Galliano Boldrini, who three years later donated it to the Italian State on condition of making it a museum national.

• 43.9941110.2300914 Seravezza Palace a Seravezza (Villa open to visitors) - The villa was built by Cosimo I between 1560 and 1564, attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti (given some similarities with the villa of Artimino). The Seravezza area was of great strategic importance for the possession of Versilia: disputed for centuries between the Republics of Pisa, Lucca, Genoa and Florence itself, with the advent of the Medici grand ducal government (1513), Cosimo was concerned as soon as possible to place a tangible outpost of his domain, at a border point. In fact, the villa could, if necessary, become a defensive military outpost, as can also be seen from its solid and compact structure with edges like a fortress and loopholes on the ground floor. The Seravezza area also had another important strategic feature, namely the proximity to the quarries and mines that Cosimo I wanted to develop. The marble and silver quarries had been inactive for some time, but the Grand Duke gave new impetus to the mining activity both after the discovery of silver lead veins and, from 1563, of the "mistio" marble also called "fior di pesco" or "Breccia" di Seravezza ", which became in great demand for its value. Cosimo, from the Seravezza villa, thus had the opportunity to closely follow the mining activity. The villa passed to the Lorraine with the extinction of the Medici family (18th century). Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo allocated part of the premises for the warehouses and administrative offices of an ironworks, built around 1786 along the Vezza stream. In 1835, when the ironworks closed, the villa returned to being a place of residence for the Grand Ducal family. It then passed to the Italian State and in 1864 it was donated to the municipality of Seravezza which, after having initially used the building as a prison, recovered it and later used it as a municipal seat, until 1966. Today it is the seat of the Museo del Work and Popular Traditions of Historical Versilia, the "Sirio Giannini" municipal library, the historical archive and exhibitions of modern and contemporary art.

Other Medici villas

Other historic buildings that belonged to the Medici family, not included in the UNESCO heritage:

• 43.81361111.2419441 Villa La Quiete, Castello (Florence) (Villa open to visitors). 
• 43.58866110.4763392 Villa of Collesalvetti, Collesalvetti (Villa open to visitors). 
• 43.715411.25993 Villa Corsini in Mezzomonte, Impruneta (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.73512810.4858614 Villa of Agnano, San Giuliano Terme (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.45148310.7795285 Spedaletto Villa, Lajatico (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.60185410.654766 Villa of Camugliano, Camugliano di Ponsacco (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.78855310.8305817 Medicean farm of Stabbia, Cerreto Guidi (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.82532211.2370928 Villa La Topaia, Florence (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.75316911.2172339 Villa of Marignolle, Florence (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.77184710.37543310 Villa of Arena Metato, Arena Metato of San Giuliano Terme (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.7141711.30972711 Villa of Lappeggi, Bathroom in Ripoli (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.719111.308312 Villa of Lilliano, Bathroom in Ripoli (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.639510.394313 Villa of Coltano, Coltano of Pisa (Villa open to visitors). 
• 43.73076711.01446414 Villa dell'Ambrogiana, Montelupo Fiorentino (Villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.72609710.58521415 Medici villa of Buti, Buti (Private villa not open to visitors). 
• 43.85909210.84658116 Villa of Montevettolini, Monsummano Terme (Villa not open to visitors). 

Return

A12 motorway, entrance to Versilia.

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• Chianti hills
• Mugello
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• Tuscany region. Medici villas and gardens in Tuscany.

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Usable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but also contains enough information to allow the itinerary to be carried out.