Villa Medicea di Poggio a Caiano

Of all the Medici villas, Poggio a Caiano is the most evocative of the country idylls described in Lorenzo il Magnifico’s beautiful poems on the Tuscan countryside; this was not only his favourite retreat, but is generally considered the very first Italian Renaissance villa.

Lorenzo purchased a farmhouse here in 1480, and commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to rebuild it in a classical style. It was Lorenzo’s sole architectural commission (not by choice: his mishandling of the family bank drove it to bankruptcy) and its classicism matched the mythological nature of the poems he composed here, most famously L’Ambra, which was inspired by the stream Ombrone that flows nearby.

Sangallo designed the villa according to Alberti’s description of the perfect country house, anticipating Palladio, and added a classical frieze (now a copy) on the façade, sculpted with the assistance of Andrea Sansovino. Some of the other features – the clock, the curved stair and central loggia – were later additions.