Villa Magni (Villa Shelley)

Villa Magni, also known as Villa Shelley, is the white arcaded house on the San Terenzo seafront associated with Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley. Their brief residence in 1822 made it a central place in the literary memory of the Gulf of Poets.

Why it matters

The Shelleys moved to Casa Magni on 30 April 1822, sharing it with members of their circle including Edward and Jane Williams. Mary's letters record the powerful impression of the coastal setting, while the house became Percy Shelley's last residence.

What to notice

The facade has a five-arched portico beneath a long terrace. Before construction of the coastal road in the late nineteenth century, the house stood directly beside the water. Commemorative plaques added in 1907 and 1992 connect the building with the poet Ceccardo Roccatagliata Ceccardi and with Shelley's ideas about poetry.

Context and history

The building's origins are associated with a sixteenth-century Barnabite house. By 1822 it belonged to the Ollandini family. On 8 July that year, Shelley and Edward Williams died when their boat sank in a storm off Viareggio on the return from Livorno; this was not a wreck within the Gulf of La Spezia. Mary left San Terenzo later that month. Subsequent memorials established the villa as a literary landmark within the wider coastal landscape.