Poggio a Caiano is a town and commune in the
Province of PratoThe Province of Prato is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Prato. It was formed from part of the province of Florence in 1992.The province has an area of 365 km², and a total population of 227,886...
,
TuscanyTuscany is a region in North-Central Italy. It has an area of and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence.Tuscany is known for its landscapes and its artistic legacy...
region
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
. The town lies 9 km south of the provincial capital of
PratoPrato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato.Historically, Prato's economy has been based on the textile industry. The renowned are a significant collection of late medieval documents produced between 1363 and 1410...
.
In 1473 a ruined fortified house at Poggio a Caiano, called the Ambra, and land and a mill owned by Giovanni Rucellai, were bought by Lorenzo de’ Medici. Firstly, agricultural improvements were carried out then in 1485 work started on the Medici Villa del Poggio, the Villa on the Hill, after
Giuliano da SangalloGiuliano da Sangallo was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance.He was born in Florence. His father Francesco Giamberti was a woodworker and architect, much employed by Cosimo de Medici, and his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder and nephew...
was commissioned by Il Magnifico. Prior to the building of this villa large country dwellings were defensive, fortified and with rooms looking into a central courtyard. Built on a quadrangular base around a large central hall with rooms having windows overlooking the surrounding countryside, the Villa del Poggio was revolutionary. By Lorenzo’s death in 1492 the villa remained largely unfinished, work being resumed when Lorenzo’s youngest son, Giovanni became pope as Leo X. The central hall is named after this first Medici pope. The villa was used by the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany and in 1587 Francis, the second Grand Duke, and Bianca Capello died at there within a day of one another after short illnesses, raising the still unsolved question of their poisoning by Francis’s brother Ferdinand who became the third Grand Duke. In the 17th and 18th centuries the architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri and Antonio Maria Ferri made additions to the villa and major improvements to the gardens were also carried out after it came into the ownership of Marie Louise de Bourbon, Queen of Etruria. Following the Risorgimento it was refurbished and used by King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. The villa was donated to the Italian state in 1919. After a long period of neglect it became a national museum in 1984 and since that date has undergone restoration. It is now open to the public. The main attractions of the villa are the
PontormoJacopo Carucci , usually known as Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine school. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine...
frescoes depicting
Vertumnus and PomonaThe fresco decoration of Vertumnus and Pomona in the Medici country villa at Poggio a Caiano is a masterpiece by Jacopo Pontormo. The villa is set among orchards and gardens, and served in summer as an outdoor respite to the heat in Florence.The fresco surrounds a lunette, high in a barrel-vaulted...
in the main salon. Most of the interior is barren of its original furniture and its furnishings are being restored to recreate the villa as described in an inventory of 1911 when the villa was a Savoy residence. The formal gardens, now somewhat wild, slope down to the River Ombrone at the rear of the villa.
Sister city
Poggio a Caiano has a
sister citySister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
:
Charlottesville,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
External links
- tourist guideOfficial tourism website in English
- arttrav Medici Villa Poggio a Caiano information from arttrav.com