Italy · 14th century
The Villa di Castello, near the hills bordering Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, was the country residence of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1574). The gardens, filled with fountains, statuary, and a grotto, became famous throughout Europe. The villa also housed some of the great art treasures of Florence, including Sandro Botticelli's Renaissance masterpieces The Birth of Venus and Primavera. The gardens of the Villa had a profound influence upon the design of the Italian Renaissance garden and the later French formal garden.
Text adapted from “Villa di Castello” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Villa di Castello ranks #1,129 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #84 of the 555 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1350, it is older than 54% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 757 atlas entries founded in the 14th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,636 times in the last 60 days, more than 81% of the atlas. 19 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Florence, 6 km away. It is one of the 42 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Tuscany. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.
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