Medici Villas and Gardens
Scattered throughout the region of Tuscany, these villas were the summer homes of the Florence’s most powerful family: the Medici’s. Rising to provenience in the 1400’s under Cosimo the First, this family built their fortunes on a banking empire and dominated Italian politics for centuries to come. The villas served as summer retreats and residences away from the bustling hub of Florence and were designed and adorned by the most prominent Italian artists of the Renaissance. The idea of country residences was by no means a revolutionary concept for European nobility at the time, yet these Medici residences represented a fundamental shift in how they operated and their purpose. These aristocratic residences embodied the shift from residences that imposed their will upon nature to ones that operated in accord with it. Moreover, these residences were dedicated to the pursuit of the arts and sciences in many ways. Over the centuries, these residences were integral to the development of the Humanistic, Renaissance relationship between Man and Nature, spreading their forms and functions across Europe, fundamentally shifting how the nobility used these spaces.
Recently, these sites were given World Heritage status in 2013 by UNESCO, making them the most recent additions to the growing list of Tuscan heritage sites. Those interested in the internal dynamics UNESCO and how sites get onto the World Heritage list should pay attention to Italian efforts to get these sites recognized. In the mid-2000’s, UNESCO sought to promote areas of the world that are unrepresented at on the list, thus making it difficult for new sites in well represented regions such as Italy to be added to the list. Additionally, this is a serial site with many locations spread over a large area, making management of such as site a challenge. Italy has one of the highest concentrations of World Heritage sites in the world, resulting in opposition to the appointment of another site in such a well-represented region. Moreover, there were considerable questions about how such a site would be managed and by whom. To answer this question, many Italian organizations came forward, pledging their support to site management and advocating to UNESCO for support. Because of the site’s unique status and the efforts of regional and local organizations, the Medici Villas and Gardens got appointed by the 37th World Heritage Committee.
Here is the list of all Medici Villas and Gardens on the World Heritage List. Each of the sites is unique in their own right, while being inextricably linked in theme and function. They are located throughout tuscany, so travel arrangements to these sites vary