Villa La Petraia

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Interactive map of Villa La Petraia
Coordinates	43°49′8.33″N11°14′7.01″E / 43.8189806°N 11.2352806°E /43.8189806; 11.2352806
Villa La Petraia Location of Villa La Petraia in Tuscany Show map of Tuscany Villa La Petraia Villa La Petraia (Italy) Show map of Italy

Villa La Petraia is one of theMedici villas in Castello,Florence,Tuscany,central Italy. It has a distinctive 19th-centurybelvedere on the upper east terrace on axis with the view of Florence.

In 1364, the "palace" of Petraia belonged to the Brunelleschi family until in 1422Palla Strozzi bought it and expanded it by buying the surrounding land.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, the villa became the property of the Salutati, who then sold the villa toCosimo I de' Medici in 1544, who gave it to his son, CardinalFerdinando in 1568. Then from 1588, there was a decade of extensive excavation works which transformed the "stony" nature of the place (hence the name in Petraia, that is full of stones) into dramatic sequence of terraces dominated by the massive main building. It is traditionally attributed toBernardo Buontalenti, even though the only documented certainty is the presence on site of Raphael Pagni.

The Villa remained in the ownership of the Medici family until their extinction, when it passed to the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine.Leopold II laid out theRomantic style garden park to the north, but otherwise few changes were made. From 1860 the estate came into the ownership of theHouse of Savoy, becoming one ofVictor Emmanuel II's favourite residences. During this time the central courtyard was given a glass roof and an aviary was constructed.^[1] The villa was transferred to the Italian state in 1919 and is now a museum.

In 2014 a new permanent gallery at Petraia Villa Medici was opened to display the 14 surviving paintings of Medici villas byGiusto Utens (previously held by theMuseo di Firenze com'era).^[2]

• Medici villas

• Mignani, Daniela (1995) [1991].The Medicean Villas by Giusto Utens (2nd ed.). Florence: Arnaud.ISBN 88-8015-000-6.

• Polo Museale della Toscana: Firenze - Villa medicea della Petraia

Media related toVilla La Petraia at Wikimedia Commons

• Medici villas
• Villas in Florence
• Cultural landscapes
• Landscape design history
• National museums of Italy
• Royal residences in Italy

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