|
Villa Gamberaia Ludovica Sebregondi
The name may refer to a “gamberaia”, or freshwater shrimp tank, but it could equally well be due to the fact that the Gamberelli family owned the villa in the 16th century. An inscription informs us that the present building was erected by Zanobi Lapi in 1610. On his death it went to a nephew, who enlarged the garden, and then to the Capponi family(from 1717 to 1854). It passed through several hands before being bought in 1896 by Catherine Jeanne Keshko, a Rumanian and the sister of Queen Natalie of Serbia, who was married to Prince Eugen Ghyka-Comăneşti. A renowned beauty of her day, she lived at Gamberaia where she often hosted the American artist Florence Blood. After restoring the building, the princess decided to renew the 18th century garden and she hired as her head gardener one Martino Porcinai (father of future architect Pietro Porcinai, who was born and spent the first few years of his life here). One of the features she had installed was a parterre comprising pools of water. Jeanne Ghyka, who had studied sculpture in Versailles, frequented the cultivated cosmopolitan nobility that lived on the hills around Florence. Running into financial difficulties in 1924, she had to sell the property to an American called Mathilda Cass Ledyard, Baroness Von Ketteler by marriage. During World War II the villa was requisitioned by the Germans and an officer, on retreating, ordered that it be burnt, also damaging the garden.The property was then donated to the Holy See and purchased in 1954 by industrialist Marcello Marchi, who left it to his daughter Franca and her husband Luigi Zalum. It is now open to the public once again after a thorough and very meticulous restored.
ernestine fabbri, courtyard of gamberaia, 1900, drusilla gucci caffarelli 81