Villa Mansi

The Mansi belonged to a family well known in Europe in the field of silk merchandising since before the sixteenth century, when he worked closely with other patrician families of Lucca such as Buonvisi, Antelminelli and Cenami. From the latter family the Mansi bought the Villa of Segromigno in the seventeenth century, one of the greatest expressions of seventeenth-century architecture in Lucca.
In the 18th century, when the villa was already owned by Mansi, the façade was modified downstream. The second floor loggia was closed and replaced with the current attic, which incorporates the architectural motifs of the portico. A balustrade with statues crowning the building was also added. These modifications were attributed by G. Masson and E. Lazzareschi to Filippo Juvarra, author of the arrangement of the garden. The building is in fact a compact block, but the façade is enlivened by the fact that the higher central body is slightly set back from the two side parts.
Inside are remarkable paintings and frescoes by the Lucchese painter Stefano Tofanelli, much appreciated by Elisa Baciocchi, princess of Lucca and sister of Napoleone Bonaparte, dating back to the end of the XVIII century, with a mythological theme.
In the garden there are still fountains and the fishpond with statues of the architect Juvarra, author of an eighteenth-century arrangement of the park that was subsequently radically changed. More than 40 are the tree species present, among which there are splendid specimens of Liriodendron Tulipifera, Brussonetia Papyfera, Calocedrus Decurrens Aureouariegata, and Camelia Japonica.