Poggio a Caiano

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Poggio a Caiano
Comune
Comune di Poggio a Caiano
Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano
Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano
Poggio a Caiano is located in Italy
Poggio a Caiano
Poggio a Caiano
Location of Poggio a Caiano in Italy
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
Province / Metropolitan city Prato (PO)
Frazioni Bonistallo
Government
 • Mayor Silvano Gelli (since May 25, 2003)
Area
 • Total 5 km2 (2 sq mi)
Elevation 45 m (148 ft)
Population (January 2, 2006)
 • Total 8,613
 • Density 1,700/km2 (4,500/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Poggesi
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 59016
Dialing code 055
Patron saint Santa Maria
Saint day First Sunday of August
Website Official website

Poggio a Caiano is a town and comune in the Province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town lies 9 kilometres (6 mi) south of the provincial capital of Prato.

Geography

The municipality counts the villages of Bonistallo, Calcinaia, Il Cerretino, Il Poggiale, Le Torri, Madonna del Violo, Petraia, Poggetto, Ponte alla Furba and Santa Cristina in Pilli.

Sister towns

Poggio a Caiano has two sister cities:[1][2]

Main sights

The Medici villa

In 1473, a ruined fortified house at Poggio a Caiano, called the Ambra, and land and a mill owned by Giovanni Rucellai, were bought by Lorenzo de' Medici. Initially, only agricultural improvements were carried out; then in 1485, work started began on the villa itself, to designs by Giuliano da Sangallo, who created a large fortified, quadrangular country house built around a central courtyard. A large central hall gave access to rooms with windows overlooking the surrounding countryside; at the time, this design was innovative.

On Lorenzo’s death in 1492, the villa was still largely unfinished; however, work resumed under Lorenzo’s second son, Giovanni, who became pope as Leo X. The central hall is named after this first Medici pope.[3]

In the following century, the villa was used by successive Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. In 1587, Francis, the second Grand Duke, and Bianca Capello died there within a day of one another, after short illnesses; raising the still unsolved question of their poisoning by Francis’s brother Ferdinand, who became the third Grand Duke.[4] In the 17th and 18th centuries, the architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri and Antonio Maria Ferri extended the villa. Major improvements to the gardens were also carried out after it came into the ownership of Maria Luisa of Spain, Queen of Etruria. Following the Risorgimento, the villa was refurbished and used by Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. The villa was donated to the Italian state in 1919. After a long period of neglect it became a national museum in 1984 and since that date has undergone restoration. It is now open to the public.

The main attractions of the villa are the Pontormo frescoes depicting Vertumnus and Pomona in the main salon. Most of the interior has lost its original furnishings, but these are being recreated to return the villa to the state described in a 1911 inventory, when it was a residence of the Savoyard.[5] The formal gardens, now somewhat wild, slope down to the River Ombrone at the rear of the villa.

File:Pontormo, Jacopo - Vertumnus and Pomona - 1519-21.jpg
Vertumnus and Pomona: lunette frescoed by Jacopo Pontormo

The villa features in the 1965 John Schlesinger film 'Darling'.

Churches

Villas

Painting of fish by Antonio Tanari, c. 1610–1630, in the Medici Villa, Poggio a Caiano

Other sights

Feasts

Gallery

  • Siege to the villa in Poggio a Caiano 178.jpg

    Siege at the Villa-September Feast in Poggio a Caiano

  • Bargo Mediceo 23.jpg

    Medici Park side Bonistallo

  • Ponte Mediceo 16.jpg

    Medici bridge in Poggetto

  • San Francesco in Bonistallo 09.jpg

    San Francesco church in Bonistallo

  • Santa Cristina in Pilli 3.jpg

    Santa Cristina church in Santa Cristina in Pilli

  • Poggio a Caiano 265.jpg

    Villa Magra in Madonna del Violo

  • Ponte alla Furba 10.jpg

    Ponte alla Furba

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lapi Ballerini The Medici Villas, 2003
  4. ↑ C.G.F. Young The Medici
  5. ↑ Roberta Passalacqua La Villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano, 2000

External links

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