Villa Bardini – Florence

Villa Bardini, situated inside the age-old Bardini Garden with spectacular views of Florence, was re-opened in 2007 after a restoration.  It was returned to its original splendour thanks to the contribution of the Entre Cassa di Risparmio. On the occasion of this exhibition dedicated to Vincenzo Cabianca, a Veronese painter considered one of the fathers of the innovative Tuscan current of the Macchiaioli, the Villa, after being neglected for almost half a century, is being inaugurated as an exhibition space. 

The villa was probably built around 1641 by the architect Gherardo Silvani (1579-1675) for Giovan Francesco Manadori (1577-1656) on a pre-existing medieval construction. Because of its striking panoramic location, it was given the name of Villa di Belvedere. This building resembles the so-called “Casini di Delizia”, popular in Florence between the end of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries, which were created for the pleasure of rich gentlemen and surrounded by cultivations having not only a productive but also an ornamental purpose.

Afterwards Villa di Belvedere first belonged to the Cambiagi family and then, in the early 19th century, to Luigi Le Blanc and his son Giacomo; in 1839, following the reunification of the whole estate, it passed into the hands of the Mozzi family, to finally become, after 1880, together with the whole complex, the property of the Von Carolath Beuthen family, until in 1913 it passed to Stefano Bardini. The Bardinis lived there for years and now, after a long and complicated bureaucratic and administrative procedures following the death of Ugo, Stefano Bardini’s son in 1965 and after a long and meticulous restoration, it has been eventually opened to the public.