The renovation of the entire complex, which already included a small casino (the current Museum) and a coffee-house (today’s Villa Lucia), was entrusted to the architect Antonio Niccolini, who designed both the neoclassical refurbishment of the small palace and the reconfiguration of the English gardens, according to the fashion of the time.
He also designed an open-air theater, an Ionic temple, the greenhouses, and some caves for exotic animals, unique architectural elements still existing today in the current Park area, which convey the original picturesque atmosphere. Regarding the Villa, as evidenced by the autograph plan preserved at the Museum of San Martino, by incorporating the old Saliceti casino, Niccolini conceived a building with a rectangular central body and two perpendicular and symmetrical wings facing north, with the western one being newly constructed.
Moreover, he added, at the central entrance of the building, a small porticoed area for the stopping of carriages, an architectural solution already adopted for the San Carlo Theater. For the southern facade, which was on three levels due to the marked slope of the terrain, Niccolini devised for the basement a lava stone base with a marble double ramp staircase, which connects the building to the surrounding park, opening onto the suggestive panorama of the city.
After the duchess’s death in 1826, the monumental buildings and the Park underwent numerous transformations by the heirs until 1919, the year in which the Villa was purchased by the State and destined for use as a museum from 1924 to host the Duke of Martina’s collection.
