Who designed the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano?
Villa di Poggio a Caiano
After a period of intensive land acquisition by the Medici family, in the area of Poggio a Caiano and also on the other bank of the Ombrone River, at Tavola, between 1470 and 1474, Lorenzo commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to build a villa that became the prototype of the country's noble residences in the following centuries. In fact, Lorenzo, through his favorite architect, was among the first to conceive of an agrarian space in which the territory was ordered and shaped according to the requirements of harmony. At that time it began to set the idea of the villa-fortress (like the Medici Villa of Careggi, more like a castle made only thirty years ago by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, the grandfather of Lorenzo). This new aptitude was due to political issues, thanks to the period of peace and stability reached by Lorenzo's politics, and philosophical, according to the humanists.
Villa Medicea L'Ambrogiana
It was built in 1587, putatively using designs of Bernardo Buontalenti, and built over a pre-existing structure. In the 19th century, the Leopold II converted the villa into a mental asylum. In 1886, it was converted into a jail for women and minors, and later into a jail for those judged mentally ill. The Villa and grounds in the 17th century were used by Francesco Redi for anatomic studies of leprosy, and by Andrea Scacciati and Bartolomeo Bimbi to create paintings of flora and fauna for the Grand-Duke Cosimo III de' Medici.