Villa Ginori a Collina, Calenzano
Facts and practical information
Villa Ginori a Collina is located in Collina near Calenzano, at 15 Collina Street.
The villa is located in a panoramic position on top of the hill of the same name on which a forest of oaks and pines spreads. From the main road, a long road flanked by a double row of cypress trees climbs up to the villa.
Formerly belonging to the Aleotti, Rimbettini and Lappacci families, when it came to the Salviati family the villa was enlarged and took on more or less its present form. The intervention of Baccio Bandinelli, close to Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, has been hypothesized.
In 1842 the villa and the vast estate surrounding it were purchased by Marianna Ginori Lisci, who needed a reserve of wood for the Doccia porcelain factory.
The villa was also often used as a place deputed to hunting, and many were the illustrious guests, such as Grand Duke Leopold II, who stayed in the villa and in the hunting lodge attached to the ragnaia, built in the 16th century by Antonio di Filippo Alemanni. A second avenue of cypress trees follows leads to the villa on another side and a third leads to a small poggetto with traces of a small amphitheater, called the Rotunda. A wild half-acre of holm oaks stands near the farm.
In 1964, the construction of the A1 irreparably broke the unity of the estate complex.
Today the villa, probably built on pre-existing structures, has a fortified appearance on an embankment, with large perimeter walls without much decoration apart from the two overlapping loggias that open on the south side: on the ground floor columns of Tuscanic order support three round arches, while on the upper floor slimmer columns directly support the entablature.
On the opposite side, however, there is a portal with two kneeling stone windows. Also on this side is a walled garden, accessed through a large gate, where there was once a vegetable garden with espaliered citrus trees and a basin that collected water for irrigating the terraces. Internally, the main hall runs the length of the building.
Around the villa a rectangular lawn acts as a vantage point over the panorama, which reaches as far as Montalbano and also allows a glimpse of the villas of Artimino and Poggio a Caiano in the distance.
The street bordering the villa is surmounted by an overpass that connects the body of the villa with the Oratory of the Visitation, where valuable frescoes with grotesques and Episodes from the Life of St. John the Baptist, from the circle of Alessandro Allori, are preserved.
Today the mansion is used as a farm, while the hunting lodge houses a restaurant; the ragnaia belongs to other private individuals.
Tuscany