Villa Montecchio
Calcutta
Note: The villa has been renovated with 42 private apartments, outside a park with swimming pool, tennis courts, track cycling. The church has been transformed into small adjacent conference room used by the City.
Description
Mansion, a former castle, then the Carthusian monastery of Calci, stands on a hill in a panoramic position between Calcutta and Montecalvoli.
Today is lapped by the Arno only in its southern part, while weather was also on the east and west sides, when the Arno bathed the territories south of the castle and the walls of Bientina Vicopisano.
The castle of Montecchio was on the right bank of the Arno, then navigable, and controlled the river traffic.
Not far from the villa, apparently arose the humble dwelling where he was born in 1136 Santa Ubaldesca Taccini, as recalled by a plaque on the facade.
In the nineteenth century the villa was not only a mansion of over 100 rooms including cellars, stables and barns, but also a study center with two museums (mineralogical and paleontological) and a rich library. All that was lost during the last war, when the villa was heavily damaged.