Villa Ambra

in 1473/74 Lorenzo Il Magnifico, the most enlightened character of the family, bought a house that was at Poggio a Caiano on a small hill by the river Ombrone and the vast land surrounding, almost uncultivated. The project involved the transformation of Lorenzo Il Magnifico's house in a new villa, as a noble residence and the center of a vast estate, following the Renaissance architectural thought of Leon Battista Alberti, who provided for a new relationship between building and nature. Villa Ambra, built and designed by Giuliano da San Gallo in 1479, now houses the Museum of Still Life with 200 paintings from the late sixteenth to the mid eighteenth century. In the spaces of the former Medici Stables there is Soffici Museum, which houses the works of the master from 1904 to the sixties.