Villa di Pratolino

The Villa Pratolino with Vaglia, with 12 kilometers in the north of Florence (Italy) is a Villa médicéenne built between 1578 and 1599 by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti for François I {{er}} of Médicis (1549 - 1609) and its Venetian mistress, celebrates it Bianca Capello, which became later on his wife.

With the wire of the centuries, it was given up, fell in ruins and was destroyed in 1819. There remained nothing the principal building when the prince Paul Pavlovitch Demidoff acquired in of it 1872 for 300 000 liras, with died of the large-duke Léopold II of Tuscany.

With his second wife, it settled in the commun runs ( paggeria or building of the pages) which remain still today under the name of Villa Demidoff.

The gardens original, typical of the Italian Rebirth, full with were surprised and humor. The carved program rested on the Metamorphoses of Ovide. One found there a little boy hilarious, a pouring peasant of water, a lavender field and many caves as well as many humorous dancing waters.

Today, the villa is surrounded by vast gardens of more than 30 hectares, in which some vestiges of the villa of the Médicis remain:

the Colossus of Apennin , a colossal sculpture mannerist of Giambologna (1579 - 1580) placed in the middle of a lake,
a surmounted staircase of a fountain of the god Side,
the cave of Cupid (1577) due to Buontalenti,
a series of crayfish basins,
the hexagonal vault surrounded by 14 columns (1580), drawn by Buontalenti.

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