Villa Borbone

Deep in the pinewood south of Viareggio stands Villa Borbone, a hunting lodge begun in 1822 for Maria Luisa di Borbone, Duchess of Lucca, and designed by architect Lorenzo Nottolini. The estate's history also includes its requisition as enemy property during the First World War.

Why it matters

The villa's history has two distinct phases: an early nineteenth-century ducal retreat, commissioned as a hunting lodge in 1822, and a restored complex returned to public use. Its chapel adds a dynastic dimension rare on this coast: a Neoclassical marble-faced mausoleum holding the tombs of the Bourbons of Parma. The villa stands inside the Migliarino-San Rossore-Massaciuccoli Natural Park at the edge of the Pineta di Levante, linking the coastal pinewood with the area's Bourbon history.

What to notice

The villa's H-shaped plan comprises two parallel wings joined by a central body, the signature of a lodge built for courtly hunting parties rather than farming. The Comune's history notes that the building's present appearance reflects nineteenth-century modifications after the duchess's ambitious plans lapsed, so the composition mixes her scheme with later adjustments. The mausoleum chapel, added for Carlo III with a design by architect Giuseppe Gheri, shows a neoclassical marble facade in deliberate contrast to the plastered villa, and it was built to receive the Bourbons of Parma, whose tombs it still holds. The park also contains the Giardino sonoro, a sound garden laid out among the trees.

Context and history

The documented sequence is unusually complete for a coastal villa. Maria Luisa di Borbone, Duchess of Lucca, commissioned the lodge from Lorenzo Nottolini, the engineer-architect of Lucca's great public works, in 1822; her death in 1824 left the grander designs to her son Carlo Lodovico, who scaled the project back. The First World War brought an odd reversal: with Austrian owners, the estate was requisitioned as enemy property. The modern turn came in 1985, when engineer Benvenuto Barsanti bought the villa and donated it to the people of Viareggio, with the municipality acting as custodian — a private gift that returned a ducal residence to public use. In 2005 the municipality acquired the chapel as well, reuniting the complex after more than a century of separation, and the restored buildings returned to public use.