The Albertian Villa Medici in Fiesole: terraced grounds on a sloping site. Leon Battista Alberti ( February 14, 1404 &ndash April 25, 1472) was an Italian author artist Architect, Poet The Villa Medici in Fiesole is the fourth oldest of the Villas built by the Medici family

A villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. The English country house is generally accepted as a large House or Mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also usually owned another Great The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a Republican form of government a period which began with the overthrow of the After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious, upper-class country homes. In modern parlance it can refer to a specific type of detached suburban dwelling.

Roman

An old Italian wall surrounded by flowers near a Villa.

Main article Roman villa. A Roman villa is a Villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire.

A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper classes. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 House generally refers to a Shelter or Building that is a Dwelling or place for Habitation by Human beings. According to Pliny the Elder, there were several kinds of villas, the villa urbana, which was a country seat that could easily be reached from Rome (or another city) for a night or two, and the villa rustica, the farm-house estate, permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. Gaius or Caius Plinius Secundus, ( AD 23 – August 25, AD 79 better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient Author There was the domus, a city house for the middle class, and insulae, lower class apartment buildings. Petronius Satyricon describes a wide range of Roman dwellings. There were a concentration of Imperial villas near the Bay of Naples, especially on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo on the coast and at Antium (Anzio). Capri ( Italian pronunciation Cápri usual English pronunciation Caprí is an Italian island off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side Monte Circeo (Latin Mons Circeius) is an isolated promontory on the southwest coast of Italy, about 100 km south/southeast of Rome, near Wealthy Romans escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (Tivoli) and Frascati (cf Hadrian's Villa). Frascati is a town and commune in the Province of Rome in the Latium region of central Italy. The Hadrian's Villa ( Villa Adriana in Italian) is a large Roman Archaeological complex at Tivoli, Italy. Cicero is said to have possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, which he inherited. Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61/63 - ca

Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their villas, where they drank their own wine and pressed their own oil. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers, but the economic independence of later rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of the Roman empire. When complete working villas were donated to the Christian church, they served as the basis for monasteries that survived the disruptions of the Gothic War and the Lombards. This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. See Gothic War (376-382 for the war on the Danube The Gothic War was a war fought in Italy and the adjoining regions of Dalmatia, Sardinia The Lombards ( Latin Langobardi, whence the alternative names Langobards and Longobards) were a Germanic people originally from An outstanding example of such a villa-turned-monastery was Monte Cassino. For information about the World War II battle see the Battle of Monte Cassino.

Numerous Roman villas have been meticulously examined in England. A Roman villa is a Villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian societies of fields and vineyards, perhaps even tileworks or quarries, ranged round a high-status power center with its baths and gardens. The grand villa at Woodchester preserved its mosaic floors when the Anglo-Saxon parish church was built (not by chance) upon its site. Woodchester is a Gloucestershire village in the Nailsworth (or Woodchester Valley a valley in the South Cotswolds in England, running southwards Burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to be punched through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial villa rustica at Fishbourne near Winchester was built uncharacteristically as a large open rectangle with porticos enclosing gardens that was entered through a portico. Fishbourne Roman Palace, in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, England is an important Roman archaeological site in Roman Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman towns in Britain ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life. Villae rusticae are essential in the Empire's economy.

Two kinds of villa plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right angles, even to enclose a courtyard. The other kind featured an aisled central hall like a basilica, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The Latin word basilica (derived from Greek, Basiliké Stoà, Royal Stoa) was originally used to describe a Roman The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards. Timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with mortices and tenons and dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window glass have been found as well as ironwork window grilles.

Sub-Roman

As the Roman Empire collapsed in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. Though in England the villas were abandoned, looted, and burned by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, other areas had large working villas donated by aristocrats and territorial magnates to individual monks that often became the nucleus of famous monasteries. In this way, the villa system of late Antiquity was preserved into the early Medieval period. Late Antiquity (c 300-600 is a Periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in The Early Middle Ages is a period in the History of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 Saint Benedict established his influential monastery of Monte Cassino in the ruins of a villa at Subiaco that had belonged to Nero; there are fuller details at the entry for Benedict. For information about the World War II battle see the Battle of Monte Cassino. Subiaco is a town in the Province of Rome, in Lazio, Italy, twenty-five miles from Tivoli alongside the river Aniene. "Saint Benedict" redirects here This article is about the founder of Western monasticism for other saints named Benedict see Benedict. Around 590, Saint Eligius was born in a highly-placed Gallo-Roman family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near Limoges, in Aquitaine (now France). The abbey at Stavelot was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near Liège and the abbey of Vézelay had a similar founding. Stavelot is a Walloon Municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège Vézelay is a commune in the Yonne département in the Bourgogne région of France. As late as 698, Willibrord established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach, in Luxemburg near Trier, which was presented to him by Irmina, daughter of Dagobert II, king of the Franks. Echternach (Iechternach is a commune with city status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern

Post-Roman

In post-Roman times a villa referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or Gallo-Roman farmstead. This article covers the culture of Romanized areas of Gaul. For the political history of the brief "Gallic Empire" of the 3rd century see Gallic Empire It was economically as self-sufficient as a village and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it as serfs were villeins. The Merovingian Franks inherited the concept, but the later French term was basti or bastide.

Villa (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish placenames, like Vila Real and Villadiego: a villa is a town with a charter (fuero) of lesser importance than a ciudad ("city"). Vila Real (ˈvilɐ ʁiˈaɫ is a town and a municipality, seat of the District of Vila Real, in Norte region, Portugal. Villadiego is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. A charter is the grant of authority or rights stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified Fuero ( Spanish) is a Spanish legal term and conceptThe word comes from Latin forum, an open space used as market tribunal When it is associated with a personal name, villa was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic distinction between villas and ciudades a purely honorific one. Madrid is the Villa y Corte, the villa considered to be separate from the formerly mobile royal court, but the much smaller Ciudad Real was declared ciudad by the Spanish crown. Madrid (pronounced in English in Spanish and colloquially in Spain) is the Capital and largest city of Spain. A court is a forum used by a power base to adjudicate disputes and dispense civil, labour administrative and criminal Justice under its Ciudad Real ( Spanish for Royal City) is a city in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

Renaissance

In 14th and 15th century Italy, a 'villa' once more connoted a country house, sometimes the family seat of power like Villa Caprarola, more often designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city. The Villa Farnese, also known as Palazzo Farnese or Villa Caprarola, is a Mansion in the town of Caprarola in the Province of Viterbo The first examples of Renaissance villa dates back to the age of Lorenzo de' Medici, and they are mostly located in the Italian region of Tuscany (the "Medici villas") such as the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo (begun in 1470) or the Villa Medici in Fiesole (since 1450), probably the first villa created under the instructions of Leon Battista Alberti, who theorized in his De re aedificatoria the features of the new idea of villa. Lorenzo de' Medici (January 1 1449 &ndash 9 April 1492 was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance Tuscany (Toscana is a region in Italy. It has an area of 22990 km² and a population of about 3 The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes near Florence which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century Giuliano da Sangallo (c 1443 – 1516 was an Italian sculptor architect and Military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance The Villa Medici in Fiesole is the fourth oldest of the Villas built by the Medici family Leon Battista Alberti ( February 14, 1404 &ndash April 25, 1472) was an Italian author artist Architect, Poet De re aedificatoria ( English: On the Art of Building) is a classic architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti between The gardens are from that period considered as a fundamental link between the residential building and the country outside. A garden is a planned space usually outdoors set aside for the display cultivation and enjoyment of Plants and other forms of Nature. From Tuscany the idea of villa was spread again through Italy and Europe.

Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the first villa suburbana built since Antiquity, was the Belvedere or palazzetto, designed by Antonio Pollaiuolo and built on the slope above the Vatican Palace. A Roman villa is a Villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. Belvedere (occasionally Belvidere) is an architectural term adopted from Italian (literally "fair view" which refers to any architectural structure sited Antonio del Pollaiolo ( January 17, 1429 /1433 &ndash February 4, 1498) also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio The Villa Madama, the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out by Giulio Romano in 1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century. Even uncompleted the Villa Madama, in Rome, Italy, with its Loggia and segmental columned garden court and its casino with an open center was one Giulio Romano (c 1499 &ndash November 1, 1546) was an Italian painter and architect. Villa Albani was built near the Porta Salaria. See Albani for other uses of that name Alessandro Albani ( October 15, 1692 &ndash December 11, 1779 Other are the Villa Borghese; the Villa Doria Pamphili (1650); the Villa Giulia of Pope Julius III (1550), designed by Vignola. Villa Borghese is a large landscape Garden in the naturalistic English manner in Rome, containing a number of buildings museums (see Galleria Borghese Villa Doria Pamphili, on the Gianicolo the Roman Janiculum, is the largest public landscaped park of Rome. This page describes the building For the museum itself see National Etruscan Museum. Pope Julius III ( September 10, 1487 &ndash March 23, 1555) born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from Giacomo (or Jacopo) Barozzi (or Barocchio) da Vignola, often simply called Vignola ( October 1 1507 - July

However, many among the most beautiful Roman villas, like Villa Ludovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth century in the wake of the real estate bubble that took place in Rome after the seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome. The Villa Ludovisi was regarded as one of the most beautiful Villas of papal Rome. A real estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets is a type of Economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global

The cool hills of Frascati gained the Villa Aldobrandini (1592); the Villa Falconieri and the Villa Mondragone. Frascati is a town and commune in the Province of Rome in the Latium region of central Italy. Villa Aldobrandini is a villa in Frascati, Italy. Also known as Belvedere for its charming location overlooking the whole valley up to Rome, it was built Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy. The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Villa Mondragone is a patrician villa originally in the territory of the Italian commune of Frascati ( Lazio) now in the territory of Monte Porzio Catone ( Alban

The Villa d'Este near Tivoli is famous for the water play in its terraced gardens. The Villa d'Este is a Villa situated at Tivoli, near Rome. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a masterpiece of Italian Tivoli, the classical Tibur, is an ancient Italian town in Lazio, about 30 km from Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it This entry concerns the history of ornamental gardening considered as an amenity of civilized life as a vehicle for style for conspicuous show and even an expression of philosophy The Villa Medici was on the edge of Rome, on the Pincian Hill, when it was built in 1540. For the Medici Villas in Tuscany, see Medici villas. The Villa Medici is an architectural complex centred The Pincian Hill ( Italian: Pincio, from Latin Mons Pincius) is a Hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome

List of famous villas

Palladio's usage

Main article Palladian Villas. The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio.

In the later 16th century the villas designed by Andrea Palladio around Vicenza and along the Brenta Canal in Venetian territories, remained influential for over four hundred years. Andrea Palladio ( November 30, 1508 – August 19, 1580) was an Italian Architect, widely considered the most influential Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region at the northern base of the Monte Berico Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the Palladio often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas (as at Villa Emo). See also Emo (disambiguation Villa Emo is an Italian Villa in the Veneto near the village of Fanzolo di Vedelago

Later usage

Heritage villas, late 19th century, Auckland, New Zealand. The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island

In the early 18th century the English took up the term. Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and Inigo Jones, soon neo-palladian villas dotted the valley of the River Thames. Iñigo Jones ( July 15, 1573 &ndash June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant British architect, and the first to bring The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. In many ways Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is a villa. Monticello (mɒntəˈtʃɛloʊ located near Charlottesville, Virginia, was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States The Marble Hill House in England was conceived originally as "villas" in the 18th-century sense. Marble Hill House is a Palladian villa on the River Thames in southwest London, situated halfway between Richmond and Twickenham.

In the nineteenth century, villa was extended to describe any suburban house that was free-standing in a landscaped plot of ground, as opposed to a 'terrace' of joined houses. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land including physical elements such as Landforms living elements of flora and fauna abstract elements such as lighting By the time 'semi-detached villas' were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse. The suburban "villa" became a "bungalow" after World War I in post-colonial Britain, and by extension the term is used for suburban bungalows in both Australia and New Zealand, especially those dating from the period of rapid suburban development between 1920 and 1950. A bungalow (બંગલો baṅglo, बंगला baṅglā) is a type of single-storey House that originated in India. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The villa concept lives on in southern Europe and in Latin America, where villas are associated with upper-class social position and lifestyle.

Modern architecture also produced some important examples of buildings called "villas":

• Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Villa Savoye in Poissy, France, by Le Corbusier
• Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe

See also

• Garden real estate

References