Tenuta Reale

Ownership and politics

Until the early 19th century Viareggio formed part of the Republic of Lucca. Following a turbulent Napoleonic period it entered the newly created Duchy of Lucca. The throne of the duchy was assigned by the 1815 Congress of Vienna to the Spanish infanta María Luisa de Borbón, at the time widow after the late Luis of Bourbon-Parma, formerly heir-apparent to the Duchy of Parma. Upon assuming the reign in 1817, as the Duchess of Lucca she became the owner of numerous estates, including a hunting ground near Viareggio where she ordered construction of what would become known as Villa Borbone. After María Luisa's death in 1824 the Duchy and the estate were inherited by her son, who ruled as Carlo Ludovico (at times referred to as Carlo I).

In the mid-1840s a complex dynastic and political arrangement was engineered. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainbleau assigned the Duchy of Parma to Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise Habsburg-Lothringen and her descendants. The Congress of Vienna confirmed her lifetime rule, but specified that after her death the Duchy would return to the Bourbon-Parma dynasty, which since 1824 was headed by Carlo Ludovico. In anticipation of his ascendance to the throne of Parma, in a secret agreement of 1844 he ceded Lucca to Grand Duchy of Tuscany. When Marie-Louise died in 1847, Carlo Ludovico formally abdicated the throne of Lucca in favor of Leopold II (Pietro Leopoldo), the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and assumed the throne of Parma as Carlo II.

As the result of the 1847 arrangements the Duchy of Lucca ceased to exist and Viareggio became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, at the time ruled by another branch of Habsburg-Lothringens. However, Carlo II when ruling in Parma remained the owner of numerous properties beyond his own state, especially in the former Duchy of Lucca. They included some estates near Viareggio, like Villa Pianore or Villa Borbone. In 1849 Carlo II abdicated from the throne in Parma in favor of his son, who would rule as Carlo III; however, the latter did not assume the ownership of Villa Borbone. Instead, the Viareggio estates became the property of Carlo II's wife and Carlo III's mother, Maria Teresa di Savoia. …

Life at Tenuta Reale

Upon assuming the throne of Lucca in 1817 the 35-year-old María Luisa and her 2 children, Carlo Ludovico (18) and Maria Luisa (15), shuttled between the ducal palace in Lucca and Viareggio, where she acquired so-called Palazzo Cittadella. She had "Lucca nella mente, Viareggio nel cuore" and was not short of energy. Charmed by the beauty of the hunting estate between Viareggio, the sea and the Massaciuccoli lake, in 1821 she contracted a young architect, Lorenzo Nottolini, to design casino per la caccia, a hunting lodge, to be connected with Palazzo Cittadella by a 5-km-long viale alberato and together with Palazzo to form a unique, huge ducal residential complex. It is not clear at what stage the construction works were when María Luisa died in 1824, at the age of 42; as she was infanta of Spain, she was buried in El Escorial.

Her heir Carlo Ludovico (ruling in Parma as Carlo II) is notorious for constant and long-time travelling across Europe. He scaled down the grandiose project of his mother, but even after its completion in the 1830s he barely lived there. It was rather wife, Maria Teresa di Savoia, who developed some sentimental relationship with the place, especially after having assumed ownership of the Viareggio estates; she shared her time between Villa Pianore and Villa Borbone. Following the 1854 assassination of their son Carlo III, the duke of Parma, she decided to bury him in the newly designed small church of San Carlos Borromeo, built at Tenuta Reale. Almost 20 years later, in 1873, the same church accommodated remains of Maria Luisa countess of Bardi, wife to the son of Carlos III. During last decades of her life Maria Teresa did not live at the estate. It was rather her husband and then widower, Carlo Ludovico, then in his late 70s, who started to visit the residence. …

Villa Borbone

When contracted by Maria Luisa in the late 1810s, Nottolini designed a large landscaping project which covered the pine forest area known as Pineta di Levante, stretching for some 4 km along the sea coast from Viareggio to the border between the duchies of Lucca and Tuscany. Its axis was to be a large avenue parallel to the coastline, with perpendicular paths and specific areas designed for different types of vegetation. Some sources state that the centre of the estate was to be a hunting cottage, but others refer to a grandiose residential design, a palace intended to impress. Carlo Ludovico asked Nottolini to scale down the project. Eventually the residence was to consist of 3 separate buildings; the central one was intended as residenza signorile, to be flanked by 2 other buildings supposed to accommodate servants and as stables, magazines, workshops, a forge, a carriage house and similar. In the 1840s the central edifice was enlarged with side wings, which connected all 3 buildings.

Since the mid-1840s 17 farmsteads were lined up along the Tenuta, divided into 28 2.5-hectare plots; they were intended for farmers working the vineyards; because the residence was re-calibrated as centre of the agricultural economy, outbuildings were constructed immediately north of the villa. At the turn of the 1840s and 1850s a small church of San Carlo Borromeo, designed perhaps by Nottolini but after his death completed by Giuseppe Pardini, was built adjacent to the western end of the northern building. In the early 1880s it was turned into a marble-covered sepulchral chapel according to the plan by Giuseppe Gheri and in course of works completed by Domenico Martini. Also during the 1880s both the main façade and the interior underwent major re-design works. Since then the residence itself did not change much, except for necessary maintenance works, secondary features (removing blind arches) and decorative details (railings, windows). Some modifications affected the limehouse and the side wings; outbuildings were enlarged to host a canteen and flats for servants and workers, and dilapidated steadfarms were replaced with newer huts. …

In literature

Tenuta Reale few times featured in literary works. In 1930 the Italian painter, novelist and Anarchist activist Lorenzo Viani published in Milan a novel Il figlio del pastore; it was a largely an autobiographical account from his youth, spent in Viareggio. Since in the late 19th century Viani's father was employed as domestico di fiducia at the estate and lived on the premises with his family, Lorenzo as a child used to meet princess Margherita, Carlos VII and their children. The novel – or recollections, depending upon how the work is categorized – provides a somewhat sympathetic picture of Villa Borbone inhabitants; presented as part of the disappearing old world, they are portrayed with a grade of melancholy. The work contains also numerous details, which shed some light upon reality of daily life at the estate.

In 1944 Bertita Harding, a German-born but Mexico-based author who specialized in biographies of European royals, published in New York The Lost Waltz. A Story of Exile. The book, formatted as a semi-narrative story, focuses on the offspring of Blanca de Borbón, and especially on Franz Josef; all members of the family are depicted in highly affectionate terms. Blanca (or "Mama") is presented as a brave widow, struggling against hardships of daily life; some reviewers grumbled that the author was somewhat too gentle with the Habsburgs. Numerous chapters of the work contain extensive paragraphs on family life in Tenuta Reale; they are mostly centred upon the period from the late 1920s until the mid-1940s.

In 1969 Ana de Sagrera (pen-name of Ana María Azpillaga Yarza), the Basque-Spanish author who wrote historiographic works focused on mostly female Spanish royals, published in Palma de Mallorca La Duquesa de Madrid (ultima reina de los carlistas). The book, written in semi-scientific popular format, was a biography of princess Margherita. Its final chapters are dedicated to the 1880s and the 1890s, the period when the protagonist lived in Villa Borbone. Despite somewhat confusing sub-title (the last universally Carlist-recognized queen was not princess Margherita, but princess Maria das Neves de Bragança), the work is referenced in scientific works as a trustworthy historiographic source on Margherita and episodes from the family life; some authors credit Sagrera for successful and innovative archival queries.