Villa Lysis
The Villa Lysis (also Villa Fersen , originally La Gloriette ) is a villa on the Italian island of Capri , which the French aristocrat and writer Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen had built between 1904 and 1905. Today it is open to the public together with the garden.
history
Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen (1880–1923) looked for a new place after a scandal over pederastic relationships with Paris schoolboys. He moved to Capri in 1903, where he lived with his long-time friend Nino Cesarini. He bought a piece of land on the top of a hill in the far northeast of the island near the ruins of Villa Jovis . His house, which he initially called Gloriette , was eventually named Villa Lysis in reference to the Platonic dialogue Lysis , which is about friendship and homosexual love.
Edouard Chimot is usually named as the architect of Villa Lysis , who designed it with echoes of Louis-seize and Art Nouveau . In the basement there is a large smoking room in which d'Adelswärd-Fersen consumed his opium and ultimately took his own life. A Latin inscription above the entrance reads: AMORI ET DOLORI SACRUM - "Shrine of love and sorrow". The villa was in disrepair for decades, but is now open to tourists thanks to a restoration in the early 2000s initiated by Capri City Council.
garden
The garden was designed by Mimi Ruggiero and offers, among other things, several viewpoints.
Web links
- Villa Lysis on capritourism.com (English)
- Villa Lysis - Heels in Capri on hiddencapri.com (English)
- Rene Schaller: Dream House For Sale: The Villa Lysis on Capri. Announcement from 2012 that the villa was for sale
Coordinates: 40 ° 33 '33.2 " N , 14 ° 15' 35.9" E