Villa La Quiete, Renaissance villa in Castello district, Florence, Italy
Villa La Quiete is a Renaissance manor house in Florence's Castello district, positioned at the foot of Monte Morello. The property features an Italian garden, multiple structures with religious architectural details, and the Church of Montalve within its grounds.
Known in the 15th century as Palagio di Quarto, the estate belonged to the Orlandini family before the Florentine Republic gave it to the condottiero Niccolò da Tolentino in 1438 as a reward for his military service. His heirs sold it to Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo de' Medici in 1452, and it later passed to Cosimo I, who assigned it to the Order of Santo Stefano. In 1627 Cristina di Lorena bought it back and had it remodelled, adding a suspended passageway toward the Camaldolese monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista di Boldrone.
The name comes from the ceiling fresco La Quiete che pacifica i venti, painted by Giovanni da San Giovanni for Christine of Lorraine (1632 in the Italian source, 1633 in the German one). The ground-floor Sala delle Ville Medicee and Sala delle Rovine, frescoed by the Fortini brothers for Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, depict nearby Medici villas such as Pratolino, Poggio Imperiale, Castello and Poggio a Caiano.
Access to the property requires advance arrangements through organized tours on specific days of the week. Comfortable footwear is recommended since the grounds include stairs and several elevation changes throughout the site.
The villa's name comes from a ceiling fresco by Giovanni da San Giovanni, painted around 1632-1633 for Christina of Lorraine: "La Quiete che pacifica i venti". The ground-floor Sala delle Ville Medicee and Sala delle Rovine, frescoed by the Fortini brothers, were paid for by Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, who chose the iconographic programme herself.
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