Running alongside is another community group, Save Sammezzano, which has launched numerous online petitions demanding that the local government ‘take all actions aimed at its protection, conservation and development as part of our cultural heritage’. The Committee FPXA 1813-2013 - named for the castle's creative owner - fights to open to doors to the community, and preserve Ferdinando's legacy.
They realised that, if nothing was done, the building would soon be lost forever. So in 2013, on the 200th anniversary of Ferdinando's birth, the community took matters into their own hands. No takers: In October 2014, Sammezzano was put up for auction for the first time, and again a year later. Meanwhile, the castle - which already has no electricity or running water - falls into a worse state of disrepair, all the time making it more expensive, and more difficult, to restore to its former glory. They fell through due to a combination of bureaucracy troubles and the lingering economic crisis. It had planned to turn it into a Palmerston Hotel with ‘a luxurious sporting resort, incorporating a boutique hotel, apartments, spa and country club with golf, tennis and various sporting amenities’, according to their website.īut the plans, which should have begun in 2014, have never materialised. It looked as if Castle Sammezzano would get another lease of life in 1999, when it was bought by investors hoping to transform it into a luxury hotel and golf course.īut these plans have failed to materialise, and the castle is currently owned by an Italian-English company called Sammezzano Castle SrL. When it closed in the 1990s, the castle was abandoned, with the hotel's fax machines, dining room chairs and filing cabinets left to gather dust alongside the crumbling Moorish tiles. It was looted by the Nazis in the Second World War, when soldiers stripped the grounds of their fountains and statues.Īfterwards, it became a hotel, only accessible by a mile-long uphill trek, which was reportedly a haven for illicit gambling and prostitution - something which would have turned Ferdinando in his grave. The gardens, meanwhile, were filled with 130 rare and exotic plants, complimenting the philanthropist's vision inside.īy 1878, the castle was so impressive the king of Italy Umberto I would grace it with his presence - although it would take Ferdinando another 10 years to completely finish the renovations.įorgotten: Yet despite its beauty, the building is not widely known, and it has been abandoned since the 1990sīut after his death in 1897, the castle's luck took a turn for the worse. All this despite the fact he had never actually visited any of the places which fuelled his imagination. He looked east for his inspiration, and carefully, over the course of 40 years, began to remodel the rooms, creating some of the finest Arab, Indian, Persian, Spanish and Byzantine features to be found anywhere in the world. The castle - just 22 miles south-east of Florence - dates back to 1605, built by a Spanish nobleman Ximenes of Aragon.īut the extravagant, rainbow-coloured rooms for which it would become famous were not created for another two centuries, when Ximenes' descendant Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes of Aragon made the castle his home.įerdinando - a committed liberal politician mocked by his rivals for his eccentricities - used the blank walls and extensive gardens as a canvas for his creativity, beginning in about 1850.
It has led the man leading the charge to save it from crumbling to the ground to muse that it may be cursed. It has been under the hammer twice before, last month and in October 2014, and neither time did it attract a single bid.
But whether it will sell or not remains to be seen.
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