Comune: | Firenze |
Località: | Castello |
Via: | di Petraia, 40 |
In 1364 the palagio or "palace" of Petraia belonged to the Brunelleschi family. In 1422 it was bought by the family, who enlarged the holding by buying the surrounding land. In the first half of the 16th century the property passed into the hands of the Medici family. Cosimo I bequeathed it to his son, cardinal Ferdinand, and in 1568 the palagio was enlarged and transformed into a villa by the new owner, who became the grand-duke of Tuscany on the death of his brother Francesco I. The main changes made were to the garden, which, with the addition of large amounts of earth, was set out as three stepped terraces in front of the villa, an arrangement that survives to this day. On the level of the villa are two large gardens; the one to the east is called Prato della Figurina, the one to the west Prato dei Castagni. The Prato della Figurina takes its name from the fountain designed by Tribolo and Pierino da Vinci, at the top of which Giambologna's Venus once stood. In the Prato dei Castagni, now without any formal characterisation, there remains no trace of the chestnut trees after which it was named. The middle level or Vivaio has a large rectangular pool and is reached by two flights of steps held up by three arches. Two small box parterres run along two sides of the pool. The broad, slightly sloping bottom level has a parterre of box hedges laid out in a complex pattern. At the centre, an elegant 18th-century fountain emphasises the main axis of the composition, since it is in line with the Vivaio and the central line of the villa. To bring water to the garden Tribolo created an aqueduct, the acquedotto di Valcenni, to supplement the Castellina aqueduct. Despite this major engineering work, water is not the main element in the composition and the only fountains present are the two described above and a third at the back of the villa: a large fountain against the wall that marks out a large open space and separates it from the romantic park that stretches up the hill. The park was laid out by Pietro Leopoldo II of Lorraine who in 1818 commissioned Bohemian architect Joseph Frietsch to join the two properties of Castello and Petraia together. This scheme was based on the creation of a connecting avenue between the two villas from which smaller avenues and paths lead off up into the hill, opening onto perspective views and running alongside lakes and streams. The vegetation is mostly holm-oaks and cypresses, but there are also red oaks, flowering ash, downy oak and various varieties of pine tree. During Savoy rule the villa was the residence of Victor Emanuel II. Today the villa, garden and park are open to the public.