Villa Medici

Villa Medici

Visiting Fiesole also means visiting its villas, and getting to know the Villas of Fiesole means reliving the historical period of the Medici era.

Villa Medici, also known as Villa Belcanto, is one of the most well-known Medici villas, alongside Careggi, Cafaggiolo, and Il Trebbio. Visiting it means getting in touch with one of the earliest examples of a Renaissance villa realized by Michelozzo’s expert hand.

Designed between 1451 and 1457, it was used for a long time by Lorenzo the Magnificent to gather with the group of humanists around the Medici court, including Agnolo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Cristoforo Landino, and other great philosophers and writers of the time. After several passages of ownership, it was definitively purchased by the Mazzini Marchi family in 1959, today’s owners.

During the visit, it will be interesting to notice the villa’s planimetric layout, based on the repetition of a modular grid, and to stroll through the wonderful, terraced garden, which reflects the restructuring of the early 20th century in neo-Renaissance style by Geoffrey Scott and Cecil Pinsent.

Thanks to its exceptional value, the villa and its garden, extended over the hillside of Fiesole, have been part of the UNESCO serial site “Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany” since 2013.