Every year, to celebrate Europe Day on 9 May, the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) welcomes the people of Florence and surroundings to its annual Open Day at Villa Salviati. The celebration aims to promote and valorise the heritage and history of European integration, one of the main missions of the Historical Archives. It allows the HAEU to inform the public about the extraordinary holdings it preserves: documents from the Institutions of the European Union, records of movements, associations, and political groups, as well as private papers and oral history interviews of individuals who played key roles in the history of European integration, alongside a rich audiovisual collection. On this extraordinary occasion, the underground archival vaults are opened to the public for guided visits.
In addition to exploring this unique repository of European Union heritage, the thousands of visitors attending the Open Day also have the chance to discover the remarkable site that hosts the Archives: Villa Salviati. For the 2025 event, the Archives offered a novel participatory exhibit that engaged visitors in actively rediscovering the Villa and its centuries-long heritage.
Provided with a map of the buildings and its gardens, visitors embarked on a treasure hunt to locate historical images strategically placed to match the original point of view from which they were captured. This created a playful and immersive way to connect with the Villa’s history and environment. In a journey through time, visitors discovered historical views of the villa and its gardens through drawings, lithographs, and photographs. These glimpses revealed not only Villa Salviati’s architecture and landscape across the centuries, but also the fascinating stories of its many inhabitants and purposes over the years.
European Heritage Days
This digital version of the exhibition, launched for European Heritage Days in September 2025, expands upon the on-site experience, combining contemporary photographs by Sandra Nastri with historical illustrations, sourced from institutions throughout Tuscany, to create a dialogue between past and present. Villa Salviati: Past and Present is an invitation to discover Villa Salviati, a place of historical and artistic importance. The video on the right reveals an engraving by Giuseppe Zocchi (1711–1767), a Florentine painter and engraver known for his depictions of Tuscan villas. This image, part of his series 'Vedute delle ville e d’altri luoghi della Toscana', shows Villa Salviati's main avenue before it was lined with cypress trees. Historical records reveal that in 1718, almost 200 cypress trees were planted along the avenue, though, as the engraving shows, they did not yet cover its full length.
Villa Salviati: From Medieval Fortress to Renaissance Elegance
The foundations of Villa Salviati date back to the Middle Ages, when the structure was part of a defensive system that developed along the course of the Mugnone stream. Thanks to its strategic position on a hilltop, at the border between Florence and the Tuscan countryside, it played an important role in controlling the surrounding territory.
In 1445, Alamanno Salviati, a member of one of Florence’s most illustrious families, active in both banking and in wool and silk trade, purchased the villa and the surrounding farms. Alamanno began transforming the medieval castle into a noble residence, in the style of Michelozzo. Upon Alamanno’s death in 1490, the property passed to Jacopo Salviati, who was related by marriage to Lorenzo de’ Medici. Under Jacopo’s ownership, Villa Salviati underwent extensive renovations and expansions, evolving into a prestigious residence adorned with Renaissance art and decorations. Over the centuries, what was once a fortified medieval structure was gradually transformed into an elegant villa, symbolising wealth, power, and refinement. The Salviati family retained ownership until the late 18th century, when it was sold to the Borghese family, who held the property for a few decades. It was during this time that the Villa was visited by Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886), an American engraver and painter of the Hudson River School, celebrated for his evocative landscapes. In the summer of 1840, during his only European journey, Durand visited Villa Salviati and created this lithograph depicting courtly life in front of the Villa, including the sundial that still adorns its façade today.
The Gardens of Villa Salviati
The park of the Villa was first developed in the mid-15th century, when Alamanno Salviati, who introduced new plant species to Tuscany, including Salamanna grapes and jasmine, purchased the property. Over the centuries, the gardens and their design have evolved. At their height, they featured two large ponds with water features, intricate grottoes, statues, and pavilions, including a small café house. While in the past much of the surrounding land was dedicated to vineyards and vegetable gardens, today the layout is defined by two distinct areas: a formal Italian garden on the terraces directly in front of the Villa, and an English-style park and woodland with winding paths and more naturalistic plantings which was created by the Borghese family. An historic photograph taken by Fratelli Alinari, a photography studio founded in Florence in 1852, shows the Villa and its extensions at the end of the 19th century. In the foreground is a richly decorated fountain adorned with rocks and shells. A comparison of this image with the present day highlights how the garden’s vegetation has changed over time: some trees have disappeared, while new ones have been planted. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Villa was photographed again by Charles Latham for the magazine Country Life, which often featured grand houses and gardens in Britain and Italy. The video above reveals his photographs capturing the presence of potted citrus trees, which were moved indoors to the limonaia during the winter months to protect them from the cold.
The Grotto
In Renaissance villa gardens, artificial grottoes were a typical feature, designed to evoke wonder and display wealth. At Villa Salviati, however, the grotto was created later, in the mid-17th century. Its walls were richly decorated with stalactites and sponge rock, materials sourced from the area around Lucca, chosen to reflect the opulence and prestige of the Salviati family. The earliest section of the grotto, shown in the black-and-white portion of the collage, included a water basin and functioning fountains. In the early 18th century, the grotto was extended. This expansion took place at the same time as the construction of the stables and the limonaia, which today serve as workspaces and reading rooms for the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU). In the colorful section of the collage, we see these later extensions of the grottoes, decorated in an elaborate Baroque style. They feature pink and green marbled pillars and a ceiling painted in yellow and white, adorned with naturalistic motifs such as birds, framed by intricate rockwork. A third chamber was added in the 19th century, distinguished by mirrors decorated with a variety of minerals, adding a final layer of splendour to this unique and continuously evolving space.
The Chapel
The small but richly decorated chapel in the Salviati castle is an early example of the phenomenon of private family chapels. It was commissioned in 1515 by Jacopo Salviati on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Maria Salviati to Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, whose union would lead to the birth of Cosimo I de’ Medici. The chapel houses an altar piece by Giovanni Francesco Rustici, who also created the terracotta tondi with mythological subjects that frame the inner courtyard of the Villa. The alter piece by Rustici, a marble bas-relief in the 'stacciato' technique developed by Donatello, depicts the scene of the Annunciation in front of an antique triumphal arc. On top, a marble depicts a scene of the Madonna and Child. Frescoes on the walls show the intertwined emblems of the Salviati and Medici families to symbolise the union of the two noble families.
The Interiors: From Private Residence to the EUI
After the Borghese family, Villa Salviati passed through the hands of several owners. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was acquired by the Turri family. During this period, photographer Domenico Coppi captured a series of images documenting the villa’s lavishly decorated interiors. Domenico Coppi (1869–1939) was a well-known photographer from Prato. In 1905, he opened Fotografia Coppi, a modern studio where the people of Prato could have their portraits taken. As seen above, one of his photographs of Villa Salviati shows a richly furnished room with an enormous chandelier and the Salviati family crest above the doorway. Today, this room is known as the ‘Sala del Consiglio’ and serves as a conference hall for the European University Institute.
In the historical photo taken by Coppi at left, you can see one of the Villa’s gallery hallways, illuminated by abundant natural light. Where there was once a single central table, there are now rows of desks used by researchers from the History and Law departments of the EUI.
A nymphaeum for the Villa
Some historical images of Villa Salviati show projects and ideas that were never realised. This drawing depicts a design for a monumental decorative wall, long believed to have been intended for Villa Salviati in Borgo Pinti, in central Florence. Recent research by architectural historian Oronzo Brunetti, however, has revealed that the project was actually conceived for Villa Salviati at Ponte alla Badia. The drawing shows an ambitious curving wall, or nymphaeum, with paired fountains, niches, and a central circular basin designed to display a dramatic bronze sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina by Raffaello Peri. The project dates to the early 18th century, when Antonino Salviati was modernising the villa and its gardens.
At that time, a new ceremonial entrance was created on via Bolognese, offering visitors a striking first view of the estate through a tree-lined avenue. The planned nymphaeum was meant to form the dramatic climax of this approach, combining architecture, sculpture, and water to create a theatrical introduction to the gardens. Although never realised, the design reveals the Salviati family’s continuous ambition to transform their villa into a setting of grandeur and artistic sophistication.
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