The 18th-century gardens belonging to Villa La Quiete in the Castello area, north of Florence, will open to the general public for the first time on May 16.
The gardens have been restored by the University of Florence and financed to the tune of 1.8 million euro by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, part of the Next Generation EU package in response to the pandemic crisis.
Owned by the Tuscany regional government and leased to the University of Florence, Villa La Quiete is part of the university’s museum system, which is currently celebrating its 250th anniversary. It was a beloved location for the grand duchesses and princesses of the House of Medici, from Christina of Lorraine to Vittoria Della Rovere and the Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, who chose the villa as her home. From the 17th century throughout the entire 20th century, the villa hosted the Montalve girls’ boarding school, a secular institution that educated young local noblewomen.
The gardens were created between 1724 and 1727 at the behest of the Electress Palatine as a place of enjoyment for entire generations of women.
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