Sammezzano Castle, oriental charm

The Sammezzano Castle. It is not just any hermitage, but it has some peculiarities that make it unique in its kind. It is the expression of a cosmopolitan dream of the Marquis Federico Panciatichi Ximenes d'Aragona, a politician, architect, engineer, botanist, intellectual and bibliophile who theorized that the roots of the Renaissance are to be found in Eastern culture. For this reason he was never in agreement with the cultural world of Florence that he never accepted his convictions, and in 1853 he started the construction, finished in 1889, of this particular manor whose rooms and whose exteriors speak from time to time of the Syria, Persia, India and other realities that the architect had never seen in person but had studied in detail on books and often imagined, combining them with symbols and friezes, such as the Lily of Florence, which according to Ximenes d 'Aragon are a natural evolution of those from across the border to the east. The result is an almost fantastic environment, immersed in the park in the midst of the giant sequoias that the Marquis brought in from North America, now closed for thirty years and only open on special occasions, but an indispensable reference point for the world. film and advertising to catapult into a distant reality while remaining around the corner.