The Medici Villa Poggio a Caiano in the province of Prato
If you adore historical villas and love Tuscany, come and visit the famous Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano in the province of Prato. The villa is open to the public and has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site for its historical and cultural value.
The property is located on the slopes of Montalbano between Florence and Pistoia, and it is of fundamental importance among the Tuscan villas as it was the first villa to be built in the fifteenth century to be enjoyed by those who lived there and not as a fortress or a farm. The property passed from the Palla di Noferi Strozzi family to the Medici family in 1479. In 1480 Lorenzo Il Magnifico asked Sangallo to design a sumptuous villa with a large garden. The previous building was completely destroyed and the new villa was built according to the humanist ideology of Lorenzo de' Medici, according to which man must shape the nature in its favor. The colonnaded portico of the villa which overlooks the garden and the surrounding landscape is certainly an architectural example of this philosophy.
Inside the villa there are splendid and elegantly furnished frescoed rooms. Among these, the most important room is certainly the majestic room of Leone X. The room is named after Leone X, the pope who in 1512 asked the famous artist Andrea del Sarto to paint its room. The work of the fresco cycle was then continued by another major artist, Pontormo. The fresco in the loggia on the first floor is by Filippo Lippi and dates back to the late fifteenth century. The pediment glazed earthenware was made by Sansovino.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Medici used a lot the villa and enriched it with works and buildings. Among these, the art gallery was built by Prince Ferdinand with works by Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael. The gallery was destroyed. In the nineteenth century Marie Louise of Etruria and then Elisa Baciocchi Napoleone made many changes to the villa and the park with the construction of a lemon tree area and a garden.
The villa is now open to the public and can be visited. During your holidays in Tuscany we suggest visiting Prato and reach Poggio a Caiano to see one of the most famous Medici villas in Tuscany.
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