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The Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, also known as Ambra (Amber) or Capriccio del Magnifico (The Caprice of the Magnificent), one of the most famous of the Medici Villas is located in the municipality of Poggio a Caiano. Today it is state-owned and houses a museum.

Fifteenth century
Located on a hilltop in a strategic position overlooking the valley of Ombrone and the road between Florence and Pistoia, the villa was built by Lorenzo de' Medici, who had purchased a farm with a rustic mansion from Giovanni Rucellai, who had, in turn, purchased from Palla di Onorio Strozzi, what was originally a simple fort built by the Cancellieri di Pistoia in the early fifteenth century.

Between 1470 and 1474 Lorenzo appointed Giuliano da Sangallo to build a villa that would become the model of the country residence in the following centuries. The time of the fortified villa (for example the castle-like Villa di Careggi which had been built only thirty years earlier by Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici, Lorenzo's grandfather) was beginning to pass, and Lorenzo, through his favourite architect, was among the first to conceive of a rural space laid out in an orderly manner and designed to give a feeling of harmony. This new attitude arose both from the period of peace and stability that resulted from Lorenzo's policies, and from the philosophical developments of the time: the Humanists saw Mankind moulding the landscape to its own needs in the role of the "Demiurgos" imagined by Plato.

Among the innovations are the arcade on the ground floor (an area of transition between the landscape and the house); the portico and classical pediment on the piano nobile (first floor); and the lack of a central courtyard. Gradually the villa was enriched with works spanning architecture, painting and sculpture: the fresco by Filipino Lippi under the loggia on the first floor dates back to this time, as perhaps does the the Maiolica pediment by Andrea Sansovino (though some historians date this to the second phase of construction).

On the death of Lorenzo in 1492, work on the villa was still largely unfinished, and between 1495 and 1513 construction actually halted, due to the exile of the Medici from Florence. At this point, only about a third of the villa had been built; with only the front façade, portico, and foundations !!!Basamento is more than just the foundations completed.

Sixteenth century
Between 1513 and 1521, after the Medici's return to Florence, work restarted on the villa on the initiative of Lorenzo's son, Giovanni, who had became Pope Leo X. The vault of the central hall on the first floor was completed, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo, but built by Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini and Franciabigio. Decorated with the papal coat of arms, it was known as the Hall of Leo X. The vast expanse of the great barrel vault !!!grande copertura a botte? concerned the patron, who feared it would collapse, but the design was tested by Sangallo in his own Florentine palace, according to an anecdote told by Vasari; in addition, the vault of the portico on the first floor of the villa, completed between 1492 and 1494, provided a second prototype.

The period of Leo X also saw work start on the hall frescoes by the greatest Florentine masters of the time: the Mannerists, Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio. The paintings were completed nearly fifty years later by Alessandro Allori, following the original designs.

As the summer residence of the Medici and a venue for entertaining their many important guests, the villa at Poggio a Caiano was the backdrop to major events in the Medici dynastic history. In particular the villa was used as a reception centre where the foreign brides of members of the family received the Florentine nobles prior to their arrival in Florence proper. This was the case for Johanna of Austria, first wife of Francesco de' Medici and for Christina of Lorraine, wife of Ferdinando I. Among the marriages celebrated at the villa were those of Alessandro de' Medici and Margaret of Parma (1536)!!!I think that was actually 1533, Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo (1539), and Francesco and Bianca Cappello (who was already his lover) (1579). Cappello and Francesco eventually met their end in the villa, dying just eleven days apart (possibly as the result of poisoning)

Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
In 1661, Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, the cousin of Louis XIV and the wife of Cosimo III arrived in Florence. The princess, profoundly different in character from the sombre and highly religious Cosimo and overwhelmed by his mother Vittoria Della Rovere, was relegated to Poggio a Caiano. To alleviate the boredom of her "captivity", in addition to having a "court" of around 150 people, she built the theatre on the first floor, before eventually returning permanently to France in 1675.

The villa was the preferred residence of the son of Cosimo III, Ferdinando, a great lover of the arts who died prematurely. He made the villa an active cultural hub: plays were often peformed in the theatre and he gathered a unique collection—known as the Cabinet (il Gabinetto)—of small works (the largest measured 1 x 0.75 metres) by the most famous painters. This gallery, housed in a single room of the villa, contained 174 paintings by diverse painters, including important works by artists such as Dürer, da Vinci, Raphael, and Rubens. The Cabinet was dismantled in 1773 by the Habsburg-Lorraine. The hall of the Cabinet was painted by Sebastiano Ricci with an allegory of the arts, but unfortunately this was lost during subsequent restructuring. The monumental organ, which still survives, was the result of a passion of Ferdinando.

On the death of Gian Gastone, Ferdinando's brother and last surviving male descendent of the Medici, in 1737, the villa passed to the new Tuscan Grand duchy, the Habsburg-Lorraine, which continued to use it as a summer residence and as a staging post for their journeys to Prato and Pistoia. They were prepared to undertake the necessary maintenance work and periodic restoration, even though, according to their economic strategy, they intended to reduce their agricultural holdings: they began to stop using some houses (such as Ambrogiana and Lappeggi), consolidating the furnishings at the Palazzo Pitti and the other residences that were still in use. Though Poggio a Caiano was not included in this plan, only a few furnishings, such as a small wooden coffer with a precious inlay depicting views and landscapes, bear witness to this period in the villa's history. The architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri carried out a general restoration, the renovation of the theatre and the mounting of a clock on the façade.

During the time of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, the park in front of the house was decorated with some unusual structures for amusement: a "flying spinning wheel" (arcolaio volante), a swing, a carousel of donkeys (giostra degli asini) and a carousel of horses (giostra di cavalli), which are now preserved in storage.

Nineteenth century
With the Napoleonic conquest, Tuscany came under French influence, first as a kingdom of Etruria and then as part of the First French Empire. The villa underwent internal and external modifications (with notable work by Pasquale Poccianti) on the initiative of the regent Mary Louise of Etruria and later Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, who was Princess of Lucca from 1804 and from 1809 became the Princess of Piombino and Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The Villa Poggio became one of her favourite residences and it may have been there that she consummated the alleged relationship with the renowned violinist Nicolo Paganini, who held numerous concerts in the theatre of the villa. Among other performers at the villa were Giovanni Paisello, Etienne Nicolas Méhul and Gaspare Spontini. Frescoes in the neoclassical style by Luigi Catani in the entrance hall on the first floor and seventeen other rooms of the villa date to this era; various artists collaborated in the creation of these frescoes, but always under the guidance of Catani.

With the restoration in 1819 repairs and redesign continued (especially in the garden, where the lemonery was built, solemn!!!Solene works designed by Pasquale Poccianti were erected, and the English park was laid out), and further work was carried out after the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy and the advent of Savoy.

When Florence became the capital, Vittorio Emanuele II, a lover of horses and hunting, had to reorganise the villa: new stables were built and some rooms on the ground floor were redecorated, such as the billiard room on the ground floor and the Sala dei Pranzi, a project of the architect Antonio Sailer. With Vittorio came the "Bella Rosina", Vercellana Rosa, a popular Turinese who was the king's lover and his morganatic wife. Evidence of this romance (for which the villa served as a backdrop) are two beautiful bedrooms on the first floor.

In 1828 sundials were erected at the sides of the building, while the inside of the villa was updated with luxurious furnishing from the royal palaces of Modena, Piacenza, Parma, Turin and Bologna Lucca.

Twentieth century
In 1919, the Amministrazione della Real Casa gave the the villa to the Italian State. However, the farm building at Poggio a Caiano-Tavola and the stables, which together with the Villa formed a single unit of great architectural importance, were sold: firstly, in the postwar period, to the Opera Nazionale Combattenti e Reduci (the Veterans' Association), and eventually to individuals. The furniture and wallcoverings from the second floor were scattered without any chance of recovery over this period.

During the Second World War the villa was used as safe storage from the bombing for important works of art from all over Tuscany, such as the statues of the Sagrestia Nuova by Michelangelo or the Quattro Mori of Livorno.

In 1984, the villa became a National Museum and a major cycle of restoration began, concluding in 2007 with the opening to the public of the second floor, where a Museum of still-life painting was created, featuring large paintings by Bartolomeo Bimbi, as well as works from the Medici villas in Castello, Topaia, Ambrogiana and taken from storage. The restoration work carried out during the 80s aimed as far as possible to recreate the villa's interior as it was in 1919, by following an inventory from that period, including retrieving valuable objects, furniture and works of art that were scattered in various State museums and depositories.

Future plans
The work of researchers and restorers is now focused on restoring other areas of the villa for the benefit of the public. Among these are the seventeenth century Cucinone !!!Scullery? and the underground Criptoportico, which connects to the villa. This area is one of the best preserved examples of an architecture aimed at the domestic requirements of a court; it includes several rooms for the laundry and even a vegetable garden with medicinal herbs for use in the kitchens. Together with the Sala della Pallacorda (once a playing field), these rooms may be used for an exhibition of the eighteenth-century fairground rides.