Villa Cetinale
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Villa Cetinale | |
---|---|
Cetinale | |
Country | Italy |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Benedetto Giovannelli |
Main contractor | |
Renovating team | |
Architect(s) | Antony Lambton |
Website | |
https://www.villacetinale.com/ |
43°18′04″N 11°12′16″E / 43.301058°N 11.204564°E
Villa Cetinale is a 17th-century
History
17th century
The residence was originally a modest building surrounded by farm dwellings, owned by Fabio Chigi (1599–1667). Chigi employed Benedetto Giovannelli, a local architect, to design the plans for a new villa, whose construction occurred between 1651 and 1655. After Fabio Chigi became Pope Alexander VII, in 1655, work came to a halt.
In 1676, the villa and lands were inherited by the Pope's nephew, Cardinal
After the death of Cardinal Chigi in 1693 it passed into his family, the Chigi-Zondadari, who retained it into the late 20th century.
20th century
Villa Cetinale, by then in a somewhat ruinous state, was acquired by British aristocrat Antony Lambton in 1977. Lambton retired there, following a personal scandal in England. For nearly three decades he meticulously restored the villa and the gardens' built features and plantings. He died in Siena in 2006.[1] It is now available for private rental, with garden tours available by arrangement.[2]
Garden
Main axis
The plan of the Villa Cetinale gardens is in the
It begins at the lower terminus far below the house, with a gigantic statue of Hercules. The axis extends across natural and landscape, and the midway immediate villa surroundings, to its upper terminus, a hermitage—Romitorio high on the hill above.
On axis at the front
Behind the villa an avenue (allée) of Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) defines the axis through gardens and fields to the base of the hill. A significant and very long stone stairway carries the axis up through the hillside's woodlands, to the focal point of the Romitorio.
Other elements
From beside the villa a secondary axis extends northeast across a
There are several original non-axial elements of the gardens. Northeast of the main axis beyond the bell tower a garden walkway proceeds around a hill, going through the 'Holy Woods' with stone statues and sculptures of animals, also by Giuseppe Mazuoli. West across the axis a long looping walkway passes through open woods past a series of religious shrines with statues. Olive groves are also part of the landscape surrounding the villa and long axis.
The Lambton restoration also developed new off-axis garden terraces and flower gardens beside the villa.
- Publications
Villa Cetinale was one of the 70 gardens included by Edith Wharton in her 1904 book Italian Villas and Their Gardens, with illustrations and a plan of it. The garden is also included in the 1997 book Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens by Vivian Russell, and featured on the cover.
In popular culture
The villa features in the season three finale of the TV series Succession.[citation needed]
See also
- Italian Renaissance garden
- Giardino all'italiana
- Garden à la française — Baroque garden style.
References
- ^ "Ex-minister Lord Lambton dies aged 84". BBC News. 31 December 2006.
- ^ "Villa Cetinale". villacetinale.com. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
Further reading
- Attlee, Helena (2006). Italian Gardens - A Cultural History (paperback). London: Frances Lincoln. pp. 240 pages. ISBN 978-0-7112-3392-8.
- Ramsay, A., and Attlee, H. Italian Gardens, Robertson McCarta, London 1989.
- Russell, Vivian. Edith Wharton’s Italian Gardens, 1997.
External links
- Villa Cetinale: website – (English)