Villa Bernardini

Villa Bernardini, built in 1615 for the Bernardini family, stands in the countryside near Lucca. Its historic rooms and layered gardens preserve the family's long association with the estate.

Why it matters

The villa was built by Bernardino Bernardini, an ambassador of the Republic of Lucca. It remains in the family's succession, with rooms that preserve furnishings, portraits and ceramics collected over generations. The gardens record changing tastes from formal French design to the English landscape style.

What to notice

The Teatro di Verzura is a tiered outdoor theatre enclosed by boxwood hedges. A wooden model of the villa preserves alternative designs for the theatre. In the Giardino Segreto, limestone statues stand near a fountain beneath mature trees. The property also includes a limonaia and interior features such as a Matraia-stone staircase, ballroom and water clock.

Context and history

An estate map of 1738 records an earlier garden layout. After Francesco Bernardini married Marianna Parenzi in 1742, the grounds were arranged as a formal French garden. In the early nineteenth century they were transformed into an English-style landscape with tall trees and informal paths. The hedge theatre was created around the mid-eighteenth century at Marianna Parenzi's request.