Villa Cetinale

Villa Cetinale is a 17th century villa in Tuscany, Italy, located about in the hamlet of Cetinale near Sovicille and about 12 km west of Siena.

The villa, originally called Villa Chigi, was built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi, Prince of Farnese, Duke of Ariccia and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, nephew of Pope Alexander VII. He employed Carlo Fontana to plan the villa and gardens in 1680. After his death it passed into his family, the Chigi-Zondadari, where it remained until it was acquired, in a somewhat ruinous state, by Antony Lambton in 1977, following a scandal in England. Lambton retired there, meticulously restored the villa and gardens, and eventually died there on 30 December 2006. The house is remarkable mainly for the scale and beauty of its gardens.

Harold Acton quotes an inscription on the villa as follows: "Whoever you are who approach, that which may seem horrible to you is pleasing to me. If it appeals to you, remain. If it bores you, go away! Each is equally agreeable to me".

History

The house was originally a modest building surrounded by farm dwellings, owned by Flavio's uncle, Fabio Chigi. Fabio employed Benedetto Giovannelli, a local architect, to design a plan for the new house, work on which was completed between 1651 and 1656.

After Fabio became Pope Alexander VII in 1655, the works came to a halt. However in 1676, Cetinale was inherited by his nephew Flavio. Flavio aimed to transform the villa in the Roman Baroque fashion and hired the architect Fontana, pupil of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to complete this in 1680.

Garden

The plan of the garden is simple, consisting of a single axis, nearly three miles long, extending from the back of the house to a mountainous skyline. At the foot of the axis stands a gigantic statue of Hercules. At the front of the house there is a walled lemon garden, decorated with statues by Mazzuoli. A double flight of steps runs up to the piano nobile on the first floor, following the Roman custom of reserving the ground floor for the domestic parts.

Cetinale was one of 70 gardens mentioned by Edith Wharton in "Italian Villas and Their Gardens" (1904); it is also mentioned by Vivian Russell in her book "Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens" (1997).

References

* Ramsay, A., and Attlee, H. "Italian Gardens", Robertson McCarta, London 1989.
* Russell, Vivian. "Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens", 1997.

External links

* [http://www.villacetinale.com Villa website]
* [http://www.gardens-of-tuscany.net/cetinale-eng.htm Gardens of Villa Cetinale]