Description
Villa Puccini di Scornio, which locals call "il villone", the big villa, is the 18th-century villa of the Puccini family just outside Pistoia, at Scornio: a Neoclassical palace with a colonnaded loggia, frescoed halls and, all around, a 19th-century Romantic park.
The villa was commissioned in the early 18th century by the physician Tommaso Puccini, to a design by Francesco Maria Gatteschi. The main hall and the rooms beside it were frescoed with mythological scenes by the best Florentine painters of the day, among them Giovanni Domenico Ferretti.
Almost a century later the villa took on the Neoclassical look it still has: the double-flight staircase and the six-column loggia were added, and the entrance hall and main hall were enriched with monochrome paintings of mythological subjects.
The real protagonist of the story is Niccolò Puccini, who between 1825 and 1845 turned the surrounding countryside into a 123-hectare park, with two artificial lakes and a series of statues and monuments dedicated to great Italians.
There were Dante, Michelangelo, Francesco Ferrucci, a statue of Wisdom, an exedra dedicated to Galileo, a Pythagorean temple and a "Pantheon of Illustrious Men" with Ionic columns. There was even a little Gothic-style church and a miniature medieval castle.
The idea was to educate those who strolled there, combining the pleasure of the eyes with that of ideas. In summer the park opened to everyone for the Festa delle Spighe, the festival of the ears of wheat, with ancient rites for the fertility of the fields, processions, races and games.
In the former stables Niccolò had scenes painted from the lives of artists and figures of the Florentine Renaissance: there the writers and patriots who shaped 19th-century Tuscany used to meet.
When he died in 1852, his possessions were auctioned off and the estate was divided up. Since 1984 the villa has belonged to the city, which houses the "T. Mabellini" school of music and dance there. Of the historic park, large trees and several monuments remain, many of them in poor condition.
The villa was commissioned in the early 18th century by the physician Tommaso Puccini, to a design by Francesco Maria Gatteschi. The main hall and the rooms beside it were frescoed with mythological scenes by the best Florentine painters of the day, among them Giovanni Domenico Ferretti.
Almost a century later the villa took on the Neoclassical look it still has: the double-flight staircase and the six-column loggia were added, and the entrance hall and main hall were enriched with monochrome paintings of mythological subjects.
The real protagonist of the story is Niccolò Puccini, who between 1825 and 1845 turned the surrounding countryside into a 123-hectare park, with two artificial lakes and a series of statues and monuments dedicated to great Italians.
There were Dante, Michelangelo, Francesco Ferrucci, a statue of Wisdom, an exedra dedicated to Galileo, a Pythagorean temple and a "Pantheon of Illustrious Men" with Ionic columns. There was even a little Gothic-style church and a miniature medieval castle.
The idea was to educate those who strolled there, combining the pleasure of the eyes with that of ideas. In summer the park opened to everyone for the Festa delle Spighe, the festival of the ears of wheat, with ancient rites for the fertility of the fields, processions, races and games.
In the former stables Niccolò had scenes painted from the lives of artists and figures of the Florentine Renaissance: there the writers and patriots who shaped 19th-century Tuscany used to meet.
When he died in 1852, his possessions were auctioned off and the estate was divided up. Since 1984 the villa has belonged to the city, which houses the "T. Mabellini" school of music and dance there. Of the historic park, large trees and several monuments remain, many of them in poor condition.