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The Villa di Quarto is a historic landmark designated villa on via Pietro Dazzi in Florence, in the hilly zone at the foot of the Monte Morello. Quarto (fourth) is one of the toponyms relating to the Roman milestones, the most famous of which in this area is Sesto Fiorentino, of 45,000 inhabitants.
The villa was built in the 15th century and, after various changes of ownership, in 1613 it passed to the Pasquali family, who had it rebuilt by Alfonso Parigi, designer of the Boboli extension. In the 19th century the villa took on its present appearance - it then belonged to Jérôme Bonaparte, former king of Westphalia, who left it to his daughter Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, wife of the Russian nobleman and industrialist Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato.
In 1862, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I., bought the Villa and filled it in the following years with works of art. Karl Eduard von Liphard was head of the circle of advisers around. Until her death in St. Petersburg in 1876 she bought lavishly. The Villa Quarto was inherited by her daughter Helena Countess Stroganov, from the second morganatic marriage to Belyakova, Zoia, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and her palace in St. Petersburg, London.
The villa's many famous guests included the French historian and statistician Adolphe Thiers. Among its most famous residents -and certainly the resident who wrote most about his stay there- was the author Mark Twain.
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) lived at the villa with his ill wife and children, prior to her death in 1904. [1] In his autobiography, he describes the villa, in almost all its parts, in a bad and moody way. [2] This includes the interior, the scale of the rooms, the colors and the "countess" - the divorced wife of a New Yorker businessman, "Countess Massiglia" aka Frances Lloyd Paxton - who lived there alongside the Clemens. [3]
The building has a simple layout, with three floors that are 200 feet long by 60 feet wide. On the garden side there opens up a nineteenth-century loggia with three arches on twin columns, replacing an older eighteenth century arcade. The main entrance is located on the side hill, with large doors that lead to a hall enriched by marble busts and a frescoed vault. From the atrium starts monumental gray stone that leads to the first floor where the main saloon is located, the latter about 8 meters high, with vaulted and frescoed ceilings featuring nineteenth century motifs. This is connected to other rooms as grand and the gallery, running parallel to the terrace above the outside portico, from which is possible to enjoy the view of the large Italian garden and the great lawn of the English park. Currently, the landmark villa has been restored with structural and protective interventions in the outer parts completed in 2019.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." He also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and cowrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
The Alexander Palace is a former imperial residence near the town of Tsarskoye Selo in Russia, on a plateau about 30 miles (48 km) south of Saint Petersburg. The Palace was commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1792.
Villa del Poggio Imperiale is a predominantly neoclassical former grand ducal villa in Arcetri, just to the south of Florence in Tuscany, Central Italy. Beginning as a villa of the Baroncelli of Florence, it was seized by the Medici, became the home of a Medici princess, and a lavish retreat for a Grand Duchess with imperial pretensions. Later given to Napoleon's sister, it was reclaimed by the hereditary rulers of Tuscany before being finally converted to a prestigious girls' school. During its long history, it has often been at the centre of Italy's turbulent history, and has been rebuilt and redesigned many times.
Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter and fourth child of Tsar Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, and his wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia. She was a younger sister of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
Issogne Castle is a castle in Issogne, in lower Aosta Valley, in northwestern Italy. It is one of the most famous manors of the region, and is located on the right bank of the Dora Baltea at the centre of the inhabited area of Issogne. As a seigniorial residence of the Renaissance, the Castle has quite a different look from that of the austere Verrès Castle, which is located in Verrès, on the opposite bank of the river.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was a daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and sister of Alexander II. In 1839 she married Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg. She was an art collector and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.
Princess Helen of Serbia was a Serbian princess. She was the daughter of King Peter I of Serbia and his wife, the former Princess Ljubica of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of George, Crown Prince of Serbia and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Helen was also a niece of Queen Elena of Italy, Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia and of Princess Milica of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia, the women who introduced Grigori Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra.
Members of the ruling Russian imperial family, the House of Romanov, were executed by a firing squad led by Yakov Yurovsky in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918, during both the Russian Civil War and near the end of the First World War.
Olivia Susan Clemens was the second child and eldest daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens. She inspired some of her father's works, at 13 wrote her own biography of him, which he later published in his autobiography, and acted as a literary critic. Her father was heartbroken when she died of spinal meningitis at age 24.
Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, was an American concert singer, and the daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain. She managed his estate and guarded his legacy after his death as his only surviving child. She was married first to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, then to Jacques Samossoud after Gabrilowitsch's death. She wrote biographies of Gabrilowitsch and of her father. In her later life, she became a Christian Scientist.
Orion Clemens was the first and only Secretary of the Nevada Territory. His younger brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens became a famous author under the pen name Mark Twain.
Prince George Maximilianovich Romanowsky, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg, also known as Prince Georgii Romanovsky or Georges de Beauharnais, was the youngest son of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.
Mariya Alekseevna Svistunova, née Rzhevskaya was a lady-in-waiting at the Russian Court and a convert to Roman Catholicism. She was the daughter of writer Aleksei Andreevich Rzhevsky (1737–1804) and Glafira Ivanovna Rzhevskaya (1758–1826). She married Nikolai Petrovich Svistunov (1770–1815) and they had two sons and four daughters.
Countess Catherine Shuvalova,, was a Russian courtier, Empress Catherine II's Lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Court of Russia, confidant of Platon Zubov and Ober-Hofmeisterin of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna.
Stormfield was the mansion built in Redding, Connecticut for author Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, who lived there from 1908 until his death in 1910. He derived the property's name from the short story "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven". The building was destroyed in a 1923 fire.
The Palacio de La Moncloa before the Spanish Civil War was the original Palacio de La Moncloa before it suffered damage during the Spanish Civil War and was rebuilt into the current palace with a very different layout from the original.
Countess Maria von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, also Maria Nesselrode (1786-1849), was a noblewoman and courtier of the Russian Imperial Court.
The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, also called Ambra, is one of the most famous Medici villas and is located in Poggio a Caiano (Prato). Today it is state owned and it houses two museums: one of the historic apartments and the Museum of Still Life.
Villa Pliniana is a villa originally built in 1573, on the site of a more modest pre-existing building, in the territory of the municipality of Torno, in the province of Como, on the right bank of the western branch of Lake Como.
Princess Tatiana Alexandrovna Yusupova was a Russian noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, of the Imperial Court of Russia. She was the Countess Ribeaupierre and wife of one of the richest landowners, Prince Nicholas Borisovich Yusupov.
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