Villa Reale di Marlia, Royal villa with historical park museum in Marlia, Italy.
Villa Reale di Marlia is a Tuscan manor house with museum rooms and extensive grounds containing lakes, fountains, and garden paths. The interior displays Empire-style furniture and art objects, while the outdoor areas feature various historical water features and planted spaces.
A Lombard fortification stood here in the 9th century; the Buonvisi held the villa from 1517 to 1651, and the Orsetti built the baroque garden and the Palazzina dell'Orologio. Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi bought it in 1806 for 500,000 francs, doubled the estate with the Villa del Vescovo, and had it raised one floor and refaced in neoclassical style by Giovanni Lazzarini and Pierre-Théodore Bienaimé. The park was remade as an English landscape garden between 1811 and 1814.
The mansion reflects French artistic taste brought by its female owners, particularly in the carefully arranged rooms filled with historical furnishings and art pieces. Visitors walk through spaces that show how residents once lived and displayed their collections.
The gardens are open to visitors with an entrance ticket, and a cafeteria operates in the games pavilion. The estate lies in Marlia, in the municipality of Capannori, west of Florence. Paths cross a large English landscape park with a small lake, so allow time to walk between the villa, the Palazzina dell'Orologio and the garden follies.
The Teatro di Verzura, a green theatre with hedged walls and stage wings, was laid out in 1652 and holds terracotta Commedia dell'arte statues. The Grotta del Dio Pan, a nymphaeum pavilion kept from the Villa del Vescovo garden, survives in Baroque splendour beside the later Spanish Garden.
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