DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68272#0298
28o
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
church and become Grand Duke, greeted his bride, Christina of Lorraine, at Poggio Cajano in
April, 1589. She was only sixteen years of age, and her training was that of the French Court.
The great-grandson, Cosimo III, spent much time at this villa. It has remained as a royal
residence, and permission to visit is obtained at the Pitti Palace.
If the site and appearance of the great enclosing walls with their four angle pavilions
suggested a Roman camp, the villa in the midst in its sturdy four-squareness mav be regarded
as the counterpart of the Pretorium, still facing the Alban chain of hills as proudly and
unchangedly as in the days of the Medici. A. T. B.
In contrast to the stately Medici villas near Florence, Poggio Imperiale* and Poggio Cajano,
the Royal House of Italy owns two small, almost homely, villas, seldom occupied, but
thoroughly livable, and not without their own share of historic interest.
Castellum is a receptacle for water and Viliam says that Marcrinus, a Roman senator,
made an aqueduct on arches and brought water seven miles for Florentia. Some remains
existed as late as 1750.
When Montaigne visited Castello he wrote of its berceaux, or pleached walks, and of its
cypress groves ; but these have been sacrificed to the fashion of modern gardening, which has
spoilt so many of these old pleasaunces. Vasari writes of the villa that “ it was built by Pier
Francesco di Medici with much judgment.”
Perhaps the most interesting character whom the villa has ever received was Catherine
Sforza, who lived here for the last seven years of her life. Gone, then, was that beauty which
is described as glowing like the sun, as rivalling lilies and roses. Her wild and revengeful
persecution of her first and second husbands’ murderers had faded into the past, and, having
married Giovanni de Medici, she retired to Castello, and devoted herself to the training of her
little boy, that Giovanni de Medici who was to be so widely known as Giovanni delle Bande
Nero, the last of the great Condottieri.
It was in 1504 that he joined his mother there, and she bought him “ a small and handsome
horse.” The mother of Cosimo I died at Castello, to which Cosimo himself returned after his
secret marriage with Camilla Martelli, and it was from here that he sent that vigorous message ;
“ I am not the first Prince who has taken a vassal to wife, and I shall not be the last ; my wife
is of gentle birth, and is to be respected as such. I do not seek for quarrels, but I shall not
avoid them if they are forced upon me. When I make up my mind to do a thing, I do it
regardless of consequences, trusting in God and my own right hand.”
A charming walk through an ilex wood and meadow leads to where Petraja hangs along the
hill. Half way is an exquisite little campanile and chapel, half hidden in a group of cypresses,
which the country people proudly call la meraviglia di Castello.
As we approach it, Petraja stands in striking lines, the tower, which recalls that of the Palazzo
Vecchio, rising from a shoulder of ilexes, the long walls sloping down into the valley, while
beyond show the towers and dome of the City of the Lily.
The villa of Petraja is a simple white house with broad eaves, its squareness relieved by the
tower. It stands in the usual formal garden, which is well kept and full of flowers. Every
day flowers are sent off from here to the Royal palace at the Quirinal. On one side of the villa
stands a huge ilex tree with a rustic staircase leading into its branches, where there is a platform
on which Victor Emmanuel used to dine when he and his wife “ Rosina ” were staying at
Petraja or Castello. On the other side is a fountain, the masterpiece of Tribolo, which was
brought here from Castello by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. Vasari says of it : “ Il
Tribolo carved on the marble base a mass of marine monsters, all plump and undercut, with
tails so curiously twisted together that nothing better can be done in that style. Having
finished it, he took a marble basin, brought to Castello long before. ... In the throat, near
to the edge of the said basin, he made a circle of dancing boys holding certain festoons of
marine creatures, carved with excellent imagination out of the marble ; also the stem to go
above the said basin he executed with much grace, with boys and masks for spouting out water,
* Foggio Imperiale, now a school for girls, one mile outside Porta Romana, on heights of Arcetri. In 1548 confiscated
by the Medici from the Salviati. Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II, employed Giulio Parigi as architect. Stable
block, etc., added later.—A. T. B.
THE GARDENS OF ITALY.
church and become Grand Duke, greeted his bride, Christina of Lorraine, at Poggio Cajano in
April, 1589. She was only sixteen years of age, and her training was that of the French Court.
The great-grandson, Cosimo III, spent much time at this villa. It has remained as a royal
residence, and permission to visit is obtained at the Pitti Palace.
If the site and appearance of the great enclosing walls with their four angle pavilions
suggested a Roman camp, the villa in the midst in its sturdy four-squareness mav be regarded
as the counterpart of the Pretorium, still facing the Alban chain of hills as proudly and
unchangedly as in the days of the Medici. A. T. B.
In contrast to the stately Medici villas near Florence, Poggio Imperiale* and Poggio Cajano,
the Royal House of Italy owns two small, almost homely, villas, seldom occupied, but
thoroughly livable, and not without their own share of historic interest.
Castellum is a receptacle for water and Viliam says that Marcrinus, a Roman senator,
made an aqueduct on arches and brought water seven miles for Florentia. Some remains
existed as late as 1750.
When Montaigne visited Castello he wrote of its berceaux, or pleached walks, and of its
cypress groves ; but these have been sacrificed to the fashion of modern gardening, which has
spoilt so many of these old pleasaunces. Vasari writes of the villa that “ it was built by Pier
Francesco di Medici with much judgment.”
Perhaps the most interesting character whom the villa has ever received was Catherine
Sforza, who lived here for the last seven years of her life. Gone, then, was that beauty which
is described as glowing like the sun, as rivalling lilies and roses. Her wild and revengeful
persecution of her first and second husbands’ murderers had faded into the past, and, having
married Giovanni de Medici, she retired to Castello, and devoted herself to the training of her
little boy, that Giovanni de Medici who was to be so widely known as Giovanni delle Bande
Nero, the last of the great Condottieri.
It was in 1504 that he joined his mother there, and she bought him “ a small and handsome
horse.” The mother of Cosimo I died at Castello, to which Cosimo himself returned after his
secret marriage with Camilla Martelli, and it was from here that he sent that vigorous message ;
“ I am not the first Prince who has taken a vassal to wife, and I shall not be the last ; my wife
is of gentle birth, and is to be respected as such. I do not seek for quarrels, but I shall not
avoid them if they are forced upon me. When I make up my mind to do a thing, I do it
regardless of consequences, trusting in God and my own right hand.”
A charming walk through an ilex wood and meadow leads to where Petraja hangs along the
hill. Half way is an exquisite little campanile and chapel, half hidden in a group of cypresses,
which the country people proudly call la meraviglia di Castello.
As we approach it, Petraja stands in striking lines, the tower, which recalls that of the Palazzo
Vecchio, rising from a shoulder of ilexes, the long walls sloping down into the valley, while
beyond show the towers and dome of the City of the Lily.
The villa of Petraja is a simple white house with broad eaves, its squareness relieved by the
tower. It stands in the usual formal garden, which is well kept and full of flowers. Every
day flowers are sent off from here to the Royal palace at the Quirinal. On one side of the villa
stands a huge ilex tree with a rustic staircase leading into its branches, where there is a platform
on which Victor Emmanuel used to dine when he and his wife “ Rosina ” were staying at
Petraja or Castello. On the other side is a fountain, the masterpiece of Tribolo, which was
brought here from Castello by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. Vasari says of it : “ Il
Tribolo carved on the marble base a mass of marine monsters, all plump and undercut, with
tails so curiously twisted together that nothing better can be done in that style. Having
finished it, he took a marble basin, brought to Castello long before. ... In the throat, near
to the edge of the said basin, he made a circle of dancing boys holding certain festoons of
marine creatures, carved with excellent imagination out of the marble ; also the stem to go
above the said basin he executed with much grace, with boys and masks for spouting out water,
* Foggio Imperiale, now a school for girls, one mile outside Porta Romana, on heights of Arcetri. In 1548 confiscated
by the Medici from the Salviati. Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II, employed Giulio Parigi as architect. Stable
block, etc., added later.—A. T. B.