Villa of Maiano

Villa of Maiano

On the slopes of Montececeri, in the home village of Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano, noted Florentine architects and sculptors of the Renaissance, is Villa di Maiano.

The Villa, originally from the 1400s, was rebuilt in the early 16th century and belonged to several Florentine families, including the Pazzi Family. The property then passed to John Temple Leader, until it was purchased, in 1917 by the Stori-Corsini family, whose descendants are the current owners. Over the years La Villa also saw several renovations including, in addition, the outdoor green area. Walking through the garden of the villa, in fact, you can retrace the long redevelopment project that affected it.

In the second half of the 19th century, the area of the old pietra serena quarries was rearranged by landscape architects Giuseppe Fancelli and Alessandro Papini, who in this area on the north side of the villa carved out an english-style park with conifers, broadleaf trees, olive trees, and watercourses and erected in the same area a private chapel with a single nave and ornate stained-glass windows. The garden was furnished with statues, gazebo fountains, and a swimming pool with a neo-Gothic loggia made of brick and stone. On an axis with the main entrance to the villa, two lion-barrels with heraldic coats of arms precede the barrel-vaulted passage leading to the lower terrace where the italianate garden is located, with geometrically patterned boxwood hedges and various species of flowers.