Centrally-positioned on the Bellosguardo hill, Villa Caruso Bellosguardo is set in a large park landscaped according to the style of the Villa.
The property was purchased in 1541 by Abbot Alessandro di Pandolfo Pucci and refurbished between 1585 and 1595, in keeping with the esoteric and refined style of that period.
The Villa consists of two rectangular and parallel buildings joined by a long wall. Its exterior and the halls inside were once decorated with elegant wall paintings to which the Abbot had attributed moral and spiritual meanings. When he died, in 1612, the property went to another branch of his family, that of Niccolò di Saracino, who transformed the estate into a villa-farm.
In 1672, Bellosguardo was inherited by Marquis Roberto di Giulio Pucci, who worked on enlarging the property and modified it to reflect the new baroque style. Over the following decades, the Pucci family continued to tend to the estate until the early 19th century, when it suffered a period of economic decline. Count Giuseppe di Agostino Campi, chamberlain of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, bought the property in 1858 and preserved it for the following fifty years.
In 1905, at the height of his career, Enrico Caruso visited the Bellosguardo estate and became its owner the following year. He therefore began the remodelling work on the property to turn it into the house where he could relax in between tours. After the tenor’s death in 1921, Bellosguardo had several owners, until 1995, when it was purchased by the City and converted it into a music and opera training and study centre based on the figure of Enrico Caruso.
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