Villas in Florence: Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati in Sesto Fiorentino
Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati is mentioned for the first time in a document dating back to 1502, where it is reported that Simone di Iacopo Corsi bought the estate, the owner`s and the peasants` houses situated in San Martino a Sesto.
Since the 17th century, the villa and the surrounding garden have been renovated and transformed several times, the first dating back to 1644, when Giovanni and Lorenzo Corsi commissioned the enlargement of the whole complex to Gherardo Silvani and Baccio del Bianco.
Between 1708 and 1750 the villa and the garden were given their present structures. The exterior of the building was decorated with stuccoes and four towers were built at the four corners of the villa. New plays of water were realized; in the Italian garden, new triangular flower-beds replaced the existing austere rectangular ones and new decorations and wrought-iron gates were added.
In the 19th century, the garden was reorganized for the second time, obeying to the principles of the English garden, which was becoming popular in Italy, as well. A passionate botanist, Marquis Francesco Antonio Corsi Salviati replaced many flower-beds with palms and other exotic plants.
Following his father`s steps, at the beginning of the 20th century Bardo Corsi Salviati set his collections of ornamental plants in the garden of the villa, but Earl Giulio Guicciardini Corsi Salviati, who inherited the villa in 1907, brought the garden back to its 18-century form.
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