Villa Fabbricotti, Villa housing a library in Livorno, Italy
Villa Fabbricotti is a villa on viale della Libertà, 30, in Livorno, now the main seat of the Biblioteca Labronica. Its Renaissance-style facade has serliane and large round-arched windows, and the interior is arranged around a monumental double-ramp staircase. The first floor holds Paolo Emilio Demi's sculpture Madre educatrice, carved in marble by 1846.
Bernardo Fabbricotti acquired the property in 1881 and hired architect Vincenzo Micheli to renovate the building and lay out the surrounding gardens. During the 20th century the estate passed into municipal hands and was opened to the public.
The Biblioteca Labronica, a municipal library with a large collection of historical documents, is housed inside the villa building itself. Locals come here not just to read, but to attend events and consult archives that trace the city's past.
The villa is at viale della Libertà 30, and the Biblioteca Labronica inside it is the city library's main seat. The monumental entrance of the old estate was on via Roma, flanked by the stables and servants' houses; of the former park only the approach avenues survive: via Accademia Labronica to the east, viale dei Pini to the south and via Bartolena to the north.
The villa's park holds marbles from Livorno's Armenian church of San Gregorio Illuminatore, largely demolished in the 1950s. A 2008 transfer of some pieces back to the original site was only partial, so many statues and marble fragments still lie in the grounds.
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