Villa di Mondeggi

History

First written traces about the villa came from the monks of Vallombrosa Abbey and indicate a probable construction during the 14th century. The first known owners were the Bardi family from Florence who, in 1427, sold the villa to the Portinai family, who, in turn, offered the villa to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in 1488. The villa was bought by the della Gherardesca family in 1538. In 1610, a private chapel was built but the cult practice was authorised only 45 years later, by Pope Alexander VII. A public chapel was built in 1710. In 1862, the count Ugolino delle Gherardesca ordered works of enlargement and embellishment by the architects Angelo Foggi and Vincenzo Buffi. Internal decoration was made by Olimpio Bandinelli. In 1938, the della Gherardesca family sold the villa, which, after passing through two other private owners, was bought by the province of Florence in 1964. The arable land, vineyards and olive groves were, from this time, exploited by a public agricultural company.

Until the 2000s, the villa and the 200 ha of land surrounding it were managed by a public company, owned by the province of Florence. In 2009, the company was put into liquidation and the land and trees were left abandoned. In 2012, the province announced that both the villa and the land would be sold the following year.

At the same time, the Italian debt crisis led the Monti cabinet to authorise the sale of 320,000 ha of public agricultural land. To oppose this measure, the peasant movement Genuino Clandestino launched the Terra Bene Comune campaign. One of the campaign's proposals is to occupy abandoned public land to develop peasant, agro-ecological and self-managed agriculture. In 2013, the Florentine committee of Terra Bene Comune identify the Mondeggi villa as one of the possible places to carry out this project. At the beginning of November 2013, during a meeting of Genuino Clandestino, the campaign "Mondeggi Bene Bene Comune Fattoria Senza Padroni" was launched, which aims to recover the entire farm and convert it to peasant agriculture. A few days later, the committee "Verso Mondeggi Bene Comune - Fattoria senza Padroni" was created, composed of inhabitants of the surrounding municipalities. …

Description

The park is about 200 ha of vineyards, olive groves, woods, grassland and arable land. It includes 6 case coloniche (sharecropper's homes). Two hiking trails have been implemented by the province in 2011.