Villa La Petraia

The Medici Villa La Petraia is located in Florence, Via Petraia 40, in the district Castello, Tuscany Region, Italy.

History

The building dates back to an old castle of the Brunelleschi family, who fell to the Strozzi family, who were expropriated in 1532 by Alessandro de ' Medici. Cosimo I donated the villa to his son Ferdinando I. He commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti with the reconstruction, which was carried out 1576-1591. After the extinction of the Medici in 1737 the villa became the property of the house of Lorraine and with the unification of Italy to the House of Savoy. Today the villa is a museum.

The Villa

Buontalenti a rectangular, two-storey building which includes the old fortified tower. He stands out as the Villa Belvedere. The building encloses a square courtyard, which was protected under King Victor Emmanuel II with a glass roof. The two side wings have double storey loggias. The walls were painted by Volterrano 1636-1648 with frescoes. These are history paintings, which represent important stages in the life of the Medici.

The Garden

The garden was created by Niccolò Tribolo as hillside garden with three terraces in the style of Giardino all'italiana. The original appearance shows the painting Giusto Utens, which was created in 1600. The terrace in front of the villa still corresponds to about this design. The fountain, also created by Tribolo, originally stood in the nearby villa of Castello. The fountain statue, the Venus Fiorenza by Giovanni da Bologna, was taken off and is on display in the villa.

In the time of the Lorraine possession an English landscape park was on the north side, behind the villa, designed by the Czech gardener Joseph Frietsch created.