Villa Stibbert - Museum and Garden (Florence)

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Born in Florence in 1838 into a rich Anglo-Saxon family, and educated in England, Federico Stibbert set about restoring the villa of Montughi and its splendid garden in 1870. One of the most important figures called in to work on the restoration project was Giuseppe Poggi, who worked in collaboration with less well-known figures such as Gaetano Fortini, Gaetano Bianchi and Augusto Passaglia. Originally, the villa, which was the property of the Davanzati family, must have been a country house of quite a modest size, as a picture probably painted by Stibbert himself suggests. The garden, too, would have been rather simple, with Italian-style flower-beds. The plants and flowers and architectural elements garden were reorganised in the English style. One particularly "romantic" new feature was the ornamental lake, on the banks of which stands a small neo-Egyptian temple reflected picturesquely in the water, while the avenue is decorated with a row of sculptures and classical busts in the typical Italian garden style. A late Romantic touch is provided by the ruins of a white marble Venetian Gothic courtyard, with a beautiful well-curb at the centre. Scattered around the park are numerous typically Florentine terracotta statues, probably sculpted by Cantagalli. The garden has an elaborate system of smaller avenues and pathways running up and down the garden, variously furnished with rest areas and look-out points. The trees are mainly pines, holm-oaks, horse chestnuts and limes, above which rise up some splendid cypress trees, which were probably already there even before Stibbert's restoration. When the villa's cultured owner died, the property, and its collections of porcelain, furniture, bronzes, medals, and ancient weaponry from Europe and the Far East became the property of the City of Florence, which in 1909 opened the house as a public museum.

By:
www.cultura.toscana.it/architetture/giardini/firenze/mu...

museostibbert.it/en