Villa Medici by Cafaggiolo

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Painting by Giusto Utens - The Medici Villa in Cafaggiolo

The Villa Medici in Cafaggiolo is located in Cafaggiolo del Mugello, municipality of Barberino di Mugello , metropolitan city of Florence , region of Tuscany , Italy. It belongs to the Tuscan Medici villas .

history

Entry page

Averardo de 'Medici appears in the cadastre of 1427 as the owner of the fort in the Mugello Valley. Cosimo de 'Medici (Il Vecchio), son of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici , commissioned the architect Michelozzo to convert it into a summer residence in 1451 . The agricultural use was underlined by the side farm buildings ( fattoria ).

With the extinction of the Medici with Gian Gastone's death in 1737, the villa went to Franz Stephan of Lorraine . With the unification process of Italy, the villa was confiscated and fell to the House of Savoy , which sold it to the Borghese family .

The Villa

The Villa Medici in Cafaggiolo

The villa gives a very well-fortified impression and, as can be seen in the painting Giusto Utens in the Firenze com'era museum , it originally had two towers. One of them was in the outer wall and secured the gate with a drawbridge over the moat. Here in the country, thirty kilometers from Florence, it was possible to build towers as high as possible, because since 1325 the height of the dynasty towers in the city had been limited.

In 1864 the Borghese bought the villa and had the wall and tower razed and the ditch filled in to alleviate the martial appearance.

The garden

There is no trace of the Renaissance garden , which can still be seen in the painting Utens behind the villa.

literature

  • Gianni C. Sciolla: The Medici Villas in Tuscany. Atlantis-Verlag, Herrsching 1989, ISBN 3-88199-614-1 .
  • Christa Hasselhorst: Master of garden art. The great gardens of Europe and their creators. Nicolai, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89479-138-1 .

Web links

Commons : Villa Medici by Cafaggiolo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 43 ° 57 ′ 53.4 "  N , 11 ° 17 ′ 41.9"  E