Museum & Guided Tours
February 3, 2022 2023-02-27 14:14Museum & Guided Tours
The Villa Medicea del Poggio Imperiale, in addition to being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2012, has been home to the Educandato Statale della Santissima Annunziata boarding school since 1865. To date it has a Museum Area that can be visited subject to booking and currently undergoing reorganization and conservative restoration works. This project involves the creation of a veritable Museum that will have a life of its own, destined to enhance the beauty and history of the villa as well as to give further resonance to the cultural and educational value of the Educandato that is not only a school but also an asset composed of ‘different kinds of knowledge’and in which book presentations alternate with conferences, concerts, cultural events, educational initiatives and charitable and social happenings.
The Tour
Villa di Poggio Imperiale holds within its walls the signatures of the many owners who have succeeded one another over the centuries, each one characterised by a different personality and tastes as well as by the desire to leave their own imprint on this architectural jewel. This has led to the establishment of a large and quite varied collection, despite the fact that massive losses and dispersals prevent us from enjoying it in its entirety today.
The tour guideslead visitors through the various rooms that illustrate the succession of the villa’s history. It begins on the ground floor in the apartments of Maria Magdalena of Austria and proceeds through the Lorraine rooms, the present dining hall and the science collections, then continues on the upper floor (‘piano nobile’) to view the majestic Ballroom, the so-called ‘Chinese Quarters’ and the Peristyle.
Guided Tours
The public can visit the Museum Area of Villa di Poggio Imperiale on Saturday mornings, twice a month, by booking the tour.
Visits last about an hour and a half and are generally conducted by the boarding school’s students in Italian, English and German. With prior permission, groups may also be accompanied by external tour guides.
Until 13 April 2023, guided tours of the Medici Villa di Poggio Imperiale are suspended due to the completion of major static consolidation work required to bring the utility, fire-extinguishing and anti-seismic systems up to standard, including further renovations to the Ballroom and the rooms surrounding it.
The e-mail to be contacted for info is: areamuseale@poggio-imperiale.edu.it. The office will communicate the guided tours schedule and will handle bookings.
Since the minimum number of visitors must be at least ten people per group, multiple requests may be combined for the same date.
