Villa Mascetti stands just outside the walls of Lucca, built in the early sixteenth century to designs attributed to Nicolao Civitali. The property extends across approximately 2,295 sq m of interior space over four levels, set within 3 hectares of private parkland. It has remained in use as a private residence for the better part of five centuries.
The estate passed through the hands of several noble families and public figures. Napoleon III is recorded as having stayed here in 1870. The principal rooms - the piano nobile, the state rooms and the loggias - retain their seventeenth-century fresco cycles largely intact, depicting mythological scenes and classical motifs throughout.
The ballroom is the most substantial of these spaces: 15.8 metres high, large enough to seat 120 guests, its walls and ceilings painted with deities and zodiac signs. It connects to a terrace room and four salons, all in their original configuration. On the ground floor, the Hall of Imperial Portraits gives onto a loggia with Baroque frescoes in pink and gold, overlooking the gardens and a lotus pond.
The villa has twelve bedrooms and five bathrooms. The grounds combine formal Italian gardens with English-style parkland, redesigned in the late eighteenth century. A camellia grove, a water lily pond and a number of centuries-old trees complete the setting.
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