Villa Lysis

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Villa Lysis, entrance area
North-east side of Capri with Villa Lysis above the rock above the center of the picture

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

View from the entrance to a statue of a boy and the Marina Grande.

The garden was designed by Mimi Ruggiero and offers, among other things, several viewpoints.

Web links

Commons : Villa Lysis (Capri)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 40 ° 33 '33.2 "  N , 14 ° 15' 35.9"  E