Historical Villas of Florence @ Florentine Villas: Villa Demidoff
Historical Villas of Florence:
Villa Demidoff
Villa Demidoff after being abondened for many years, has recently been opened to the public. It was realized between 1568 and 1581 by two smart characters of that time: Francesco I de` Medici, expert in art and alchemy, and Buontalenti, a very skilled architect. The result of their collaboration is a villa considered among the most beautiful ones built by Medici family: a modern villa more from the technological point of view than from the architectural one. The water was the essential element that Francesco I and Buontalenti decided to choose in order to obtain a very strong effect on the public. The water, by getting down from the Montesenario created a basin, a fountain with a fall and by entering into the caves, it started a mechanism that produced the sound of a myiriad of non-existent birds. The progeny of Francesco I took much care of
Villa Demidoff until when the Lorena family considered it too expensive and decided to move every kind of ornament from the villa to their urban palaces . Once abandoned the villa gradually began its decline. In 1824 Villa\Demidoff was partially crushed in order to build an english garden in place of it. This is because the subsequent owners lived inside a dépendence of the villa. The 1969 auction is responsible for having got free of the last ancient furniture. Today we can still admire the little villa Demidoff immersed in a wonderful enormous park where the giant shape of the Appennino sculpture realized by Giambologna stands out.
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Villa Demidoff
