Florence, Palerme et le trône d’Angleterre

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What do Florence, Palermo and the English throne have in common?
Let’s go back in time to the Medici era to discover this little known curiosity, for which we have the written chronicles of Giorgio Vasari to thank. Luigi Di Toledo, brother of Eleonora, wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici, built a “Casino” in Florence. These were not the gambling houses we know today, but urban villas with grand gardens designed to maximize integration with nature, as if one was in the country instead of the city. This urban garden was resplendent with decorations and marvelous fountains “unlike any other in Italy,” wrote Vasari; a garden superior to all others in the variety of plants, avenues and paths in harmony with its urban context, a jewel of Florence.
In 1574 the garden’s central fountain was sold to Palermo and today we can admire its beauty in the piazza Pretoria; while in 1777 the villa itself became the property of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, also known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie” or the “Young Pretender,” and his wife, Princess Louise Von Stolberg, where they adopted the pseudonyms “Count and Countess of Albany.” Today the prince is best known as the instigator of the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 where he tried to reinstall his family’s claim to the English throne, as well as the Catholic “divine right” of kings.
After the failed rebellion, Charles returned to Italy, where he had lived most of his life, and purchased the Villa San Clemente in Via Gino Capponi, upon which it became known as Palazzo del Pretendente, in honor of the prince’s other nickname.
Today the villa belongs to the University of Florence, where it is still possible to admire frescoes and the insignia of the English throne, a lasting testimony to Florence’s role as a central crossroads for world leaders throughout history, and yet another little known wonder worth discovering

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