Villas in Florence: Villa La Petraia in Castello
The Salutati family sold Villa La Petraia, which had previously belonged to the Brunelleschi and to the Strozzi families, to the Medici family in the first half of the 16th century. Cosimo I gave it to his son Ferdinand in 1568.
Ferdinand, who became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587 at the death of his brother Francis, extended the villa and made important changes in the garden.
In the 17th century, Ferdinand`s successors dedicated to the decoration of the rooms with cycles of frescoes, whereas the Lorraine re-furnished the rooms and made some minor changes in the garden.
In 1829 Joseph Frietsch realised the alley linking the villa in Castello and Villa La Petraia by order of Peter Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine and designed the English garden that can be still admired.
As soon as it became Victor Emmanuel II`s residence, the villa was re-decorated and re-furnished.
In 1919 the villa was given to the State, which in turn gave it to the Opera Nazionale Combattenti (an institution created during World War I to help the veterans). In the 1960s the villa was widely restored.
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