10 Facts About Villa Medici

Villa Medici is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinita dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French State, has housed the French Academy in Rome since 1803.

In 1576, the property was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Villa Medici, who finished the structure to designs by Bartolomeo Ammanati.

The Villa Medici became at once the first among Medici properties in Rome, intended to give concrete expression to the ascendancy of the Medici among Italian princes and assert their permanent presence in Rome.

Ferdinando de' Villa Medici had a studiolo, a retreat for study and contemplation, built to the north east of the garden above the Aurelian wall.

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The Medici lions were completed in 1598, and the Medici Vase entered the collection at the Villa, followed by the Venus de' Medici by the 1630s; the Medici sculptures were not removed to Florence until the eighteenth century.

Fountain in the front of the Villa Medici is formed from a red granite vase from ancient Rome.

The view from the Villa Medici looking over the fountain towards St Peter's in the distance has been much painted, but the trees in the foreground have now obscured the view.

Villa Medici invented a decor that was a homage to the past and, at the same time, radically contemporary: The mysterious melancholic decor he created for Villa Medici has become, in turn, historic and was undergoing an important restoration campaign in 2016.

Work continued under the direction of the previous director, Richard Peduzzi, and the Villa Medici resumed organizing exhibitions and shows created by its artists in residence.