Villa Poggio Torselli, historic residence once called "Queen of the Villas", stands on the Tuscan hills in the municipality of San Casciano in Val di Pesa in the Chianti Classico area, offering a splendid view of the vineyards and olive trees of Chianti. Among the wonders that characterize the Villa is certainly the Italian Garden, for years classified among the 100 most beautiful gardens in the country.
Villa Poggio Torselli History
The villa is already mentioned in a document of 1427 with the current name and was then owned by the Machiavelli family. In the following centuries the property passed to the Angiolini, Corsini, Macalli and Capponi families; in the XVIII century it belongs to the Orlandini del Beccuto and finally to the Antinori.
It was the latter family that in 1702 commissioned the architect Lorenzo Merlini to transform the previous building into today's structure.
In its history, the building hosted Pope Pius VII when he was called by Napoleon to France for his coronation.
The garden, probably dating back to the end of the 17th century, consists of an Italian garden, divided into two terraced shelves in the south and an English-style park area in the north. In the upper terrace on the south side, part of the original layout has been preserved with flower beds supplied by a very ingenious canal irrigation system, so much so that it is one of the best preserved in Tuscany.
In the mid-nineteenth century, to follow the fashion of the English garden at the reigning era, it was transformed according to that style. Restored for the first time in 1925 with the replacement of the hedges, it was a second time restored from the current property which has restored a typical vegetation of the gardens of the late seventeenth century. Dwarf fruit trees, old roses and aromatic herbs frame the architecture of the palace and the Baroque noble chapel.
The collection of potted citrus fruits, preserved in the cold season in a splendid greenhouse, is particularly renowned.