The building originally belonged to the Brancacci family and later to the Salvetti family who transformed it into a “gentleman’s and worker’s house,” holding it until the early seventeenth century.
Subsequently, the property passed to the Bardi and the Usimbardi families, then became fideicommissary to the Company of San Michele and was rented out to the Torrigiani family until the first half of the eighteenth century. Later it belonged to the Cedri family, then the Seratti family, and afterwards passed to Agnese Pecci, who sold it in 1824 to the Milanese count Giuseppe Archinto.
He commissioned architect Giuseppe Poggi to renovate and expand the property: the nineteenth-century villa in Neoclassical style was built, including stables accessible from Via delle Forbici.
With the collaboration of gardener and botanist Attilio Pucci, the mulberry and olive farm was transformed into the current romantic park: earthworks continued until 1856, followed by the planting of trees (linden, elm, horse chestnut, hackberry), creating views and perspectives through the contrast between large tree masses and wide grassy areas.
The English-style park extends over the hill for about five hectares; inside, a carriage road was built to allow easier access to the villa, as an alternative to the steep Via delle Forbici.
Characteristic elements include the romantic pond, with a small island and a little bridge, in the entrance meadow.
After acquisition by the State, restoration work carried out by the Superintendency between 1983 and 1985 fully preserved the park’s landscape and environmental values.
The park’s naturalistic hillside layout, mainly featuring tree plantations and woodlands, was created primarily with landscape characteristics and values, exploiting views and glimpses toward the city.
The extensive grassy areas, the composition of tree groups, and the correct proportion between the various tree masses characterize this English-style romantic park, which for Poggi was a precursor to the Viale dei Colli.
The mass of the hedges and borders of the avenue consists of bay and sea buckthorn hedges adorned with borders of Rosa chinensis.
Near the entrance are Platanus orientalis and Platanus occidentalis, followed by Acer campestre; along the path there’s a Taxus baccata, and on the left margin Cercis siliquastrum (Judas tree). Beyond the holm oak grove, notable are some Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree), then several horse chestnuts, elms, hackberries, and cypresses arranged along the windbreak boundary wall. The undergrowth mainly consists of shrubs of Laurus nobilis (bay) and Ruscus aculeatus (butcher’s broom). On the large meadow by the lake, various species including Pinus nigra, Gleditschia triacanthos, Broussonetia papyrifera.
Among other plants, hackberries, lindens, the “oak wood”, the “robinia meadow”.
Near the staircase access to the Italian garden in front of the Villa, a Washingtonia filifera palm, followed by several rose varieties including Rosa banksiae, and the final part of the avenue leading to the Villa is shaded by some Sophora japonica plants.
The park was acquired by the Italian State in 1967 through the right of preemption from the owner Count Gamba Castelli, then entrusted to the Superintendency for Architectural and Landscape Heritage of Florence, and finally, following the recent Ministry reform, assigned in March 2015 to the Polo Museale della Toscana.
OPENING HOURS Villa Il Ventaglio Park
The park is open every day except Monday.
From June to September it is also closed on Thursdays.
June, July, August 8:15 am – 7:30 pm.
September and October (until the end of daylight saving time) 8:15 am – 6:30 pm.
From the last Sunday in October to October 31 8:15 am – 5:30 pm.
November, December, January, February 8:15 am – 4:30 pm.
March (until the end of standard time) 8:15 am – 5:30 pm.
April, May 8:15 am – 6:30 pm.
