Villa Medici at Careggi

Villa Medici at Careggi, located on Viale Gaetano Pieraccini 17, Florence, is one of the first villas of the influential Medici family, known for the Platonic Academy founded by Cosimo de' Medici, who died here in 1464. Like most villas of Florentine families, it remained a working farm that helped render the family self-sufficient. Lorenzo, Cosimo de' Medici's brother, acquired the villa in 1417. The villa was remodeled by Michelozzo in the 15th century.

Cosimo the Elder remodeled the villa around its loggia-enclosed central courtyard. The terraced gardens and shaded boschi were extended by Lorenzo, and the garden design gained symbolic importance of Renaissance culture in Tuscany. In the late 1800s, the villa was purchased by an Englishman, Francis Sloane, who planted exotics in the landscape, giving it an arboretum-like feeling. Today, Villa Medici belongs to the Tuscan public administration, and is currently under restoration and closed to the public.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons