Villa Medici at Careggi

The Medici villa of Careggi, one of the oldest Medici villas, is still a very fortress-like looking building in Careggi, a suburb of Florence, at the address via Gaetano Pieraccini 17

History

1417 acquired Giovanni di Bicci de ' Medici of the founders of the wealth of the family, here lands. Here the third Medici villa was built by Cafaggiolo and Trebbio in Mugello. It stands at the junction between the fortified villa rustica and the villa as a locus amoenus of recreation and intellectual conversation. After Giovanni's death ( 1429) his sons Cosimo de ' Medici and Lorenzo il Vecchio, Villa were converted by their house architect Michelozzo.

Francesco Sforza praised in 1459 during his visit to Florence, the beauty of the place and the villa. In the same year Cosimo founded here his Neo-Platonic academy with Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. At the Villa Lorenzo il Magnifico (1448-1492) was born and died here as well. A second period of the villa there was under Carlo de ' Medici ( 1609), the house and gardens were restored after his appointment as cardinal. In the 19th century, the ambassador family Holland owned the estate from 1848 and then Sir Francis Joseph Sloane, who had to make significant renovations and an enthusiastic botanist enriched the park with rare plants.

Finally, the house was used as an administrative center of a hospital complex.