Medici Villa of La Petraia

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the hills of Castello, north of Florence, the Medici Villa of La Petraia overlooks the city from its terraced gardens. Formerly a fortified ‘palagio’ owned by the Brunelleschi from 1364, then by the Strozzi, it was bought by Cosimo I de’ Medici around 1544. His son Ferdinando I transformed it from 1588 into a princely residence: the medieval tower became a belvedere, and ten years of earthworks transformed the stony hill, hence the name Petraia, into a series of spectacular terraces. Its inner courtyard bears the Medici Fasti by Volterrano (1637–1646), one of the great painted cycles of the Medici villas. Victor Emmanuel II, who made it one of his favourite residences alongside the ‘Bella Rosina’, had the courtyard covered with a glass roof in 1872 and installed a reception hall there beneath an amethyst crystal chandelier. Giambologna’s Venus Fiorenza is housed inside. State-owned and a national museum, the villa has been part of the UNESCO site ‘Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany’ since 2013. This covered courtyard becomes the main octagonal hall of the G7 summit in season 4 of the Netflix series ‘The Diplomat’, released on 15 October 2026.