Villa Peyron al Bosco di Fontelucente

Villa Peyron and its gardens occupy a hillside above Florence near Fiesole. Terraces, boxwood hedges, cypresses and fountains form a twentieth-century landscape garden around a historic villa and a spring known as Fontelucente.

Why it matters

The estate combines an older rural property with a garden shaped by the Peyron family in the twentieth century. It was donated to the Fondazione Parchi Monumentali Bardini e Peyron in 1998 and recognised in 2000 as an example of a twentieth-century garden.

What to notice

The formal garden descends across three terraces, with clipped boxwood, stairways and cypresses framing views of Florence. Water from the Fontelucente spring feeds twenty-nine fountains and more than a hundred jets. The grounds include a lake, a small chapel garden and a holm oak pruned into an umbrella form. The villa preserves a wooden gallery, frescoed ceilings and stained glass depicting the zodiac.

Context and history

The estate appears as “Bosco” on maps from 1580–95. Angelo Peyron acquired it in 1914 and commissioned architect Ugo Giovannozzi to enlarge the villa. His son Paolo developed the garden from 1936 and donated the estate, comprising more than forty hectares, to the foundation in 1998. The foundation assumed direct management in 2002.