28o 
THE GARDES S OF ITALY. 
church and become Grand Duke, greeted his bride, Christina of Lorraine, at Poggio Cajano in 
April, 1589. She was only sixteen years of age, and her training was that of the French Court. 
The great-grandson, Cosimo III, spent much time at this villa. It has reniained as a royal 
residence, and permission to visit is obtained at the Pitti Palace. 
If the site and appearance of the great enclosing walls with their four angle pavilions 
suggested a Roman camp, the villa in the midst in its sturdy four-squareness mav be regarded 
as the counterpart of the Pretorium, still facing the Alban chain of hills as proudly and 
unchangedly as in the days of the Medici. A. T. B. 
In contrast to the stately Medici villas near Florence, Poggio Imperiale* and Poggio Cajano, 
the Royal House of Italy owns two small, almost homely, villas, seldom occupied, but 
thoroughly livable, and not without their own share of historic interest. 
Castellum is a receptacle for water and Viliam says that Marcrinus, a Roman senator, 
made an aqueduct on arches and brought water seven miles for Florentia. Some remains 
existed as late as 1750. 
When Montaigne visited Castello he wrote of its berceatix, or pleached walks, and of its 
cypress groves ; but these have been sacrificed to the fashion of modern gardening, which has 
spoilt so many of these old pleasaunces. Vasari writes of the villa that “ it was built by Pier 
Francesco di Medici with much judgment.” 
Perhaps the most interesting character whom the villa has ever received was Catherine 
Sforza, who lived here for the last seven years of her life. Gone, then, was that beauty which 
is described as glowing like the sun, as rivalling lilies and roses. Her wild and revengeful 
persecution of her first and second husbands’ murderers had faded into the past, and, having 
married Giovanni de Medici, she retired to Castello, and devoted herself to the training of her 
little boy, that Giovanni de Medici who was to be so widely known as Giovanni delle Bande 
Nero, the last of the great Condoitieri. 
It was in 1504 that he joined his mother there, and she bought him “ a small and handsome 
horse.” The mother of Cosimo I died at Castello, to which Cosimo himself returned after his 
secret marriage with Camilla Martelli, and it was from here that he sent that vigorous message : 
“ I am not the first Prince who has taken a vassal to wife, and I shall not be the last ; my wife 
is of gentle birth, and is to be respected as such. I do not seek for quarrels, but I shall not 
avoid them if they are forced upon me. When I make up my mind to do a thing, I do it 
regardless of consequences, trusting in God and mv own right hand.” 
A charming walk through an ilex wood and meadow leads to where Petraja hangs along the 
hill. Half way is an exquisite little campanile and chapel, half hidden in a group of cypresses, 
which the country people proudly call la meravigUa di Castello. 
As we approach it, Petraja stands in striking lines, the tower, which recalls that of the Palazzo 
Vecchio, rising from a shoulder of ilexes, the long walls sloping down into the valley, while 
bevond show the towers and dome of the City of the Lily. 
The villa of Petraja is a simple white house with broad eaves, its squareness relieved by the 
tower. It stands in the usual formal garden, which is well kept and full of flowers. Every 
day flowers are sent off from here to the Royal palace at the Quirinal. On one side of the villa 
stands a huge ilex tree with a rustic staircase leading into its branches, where there is a platform 
on which Victor Emmanuel used to dine when he and his wife “ Rosina ” were staying at 
Petraja or Castello. On the other side is a fountain, the masterpiece of Tribolo, which was 
brought here from Castello by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. Vasari says of it : “ II 
Tribolo carved on the marble base a mass of marine monsters, all plump and undercut, with 
tails so curiously twisted together that nothing better can be done in that style. Having 
finished it, he took a marble basin, brought to Castello long before. . . In the throat, near 
to the edge of the said basin, he made a circle of dancing boys holding certain festoons of 
marine creatures, carved with excellent imagination out of the marble ; also the stem to go 
above the said basin he executed with much grace, with bovs and masks for spouting out water, 
* Puggio Imperiale, now a school for girls, one mile outside Porta Komana, on heights of Arcclri. In 1548 confiscated 
by the Medici from the Salviati. .Maria IMaddalcna of Austria, wife of Cosimo II. eniploved Giulio Parigi as architect. Stable 
block, etc., added later. — A, T. B. 
