New owner for Villa Michelangelo, on the hills of Florence, the only building still existing in its entirety, where Michelangelo Buonarroti lived and worked. The historic residence, built between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was recently sold for 8 million euros to a foreign investment fund. The sale was handled by Building Heritage, Forbes Global Properties’ exclusive partner for Italy, which announced the sale through a press release.
Located in the upper part of Settignano, a short distance from the center of Florence, the villa was an ancient property of the Buonarroti family. In his biographies, in fact, Michelangelo recalls how, after his birth in Caprese, he moved to the Florentine hills, where a nurse would have suckled him with “milk mixed with marble dust”, from which his early passion for sculpture derived. Here Michelangelo grew and worked so much that the house still preserved one of his original sketched works, the Triton, or Satyr, which remained intact and currently in the possession of the previous owners and therefore was not sold together with the villa.
The villa still retains its original structure and is spread over four levels, extending for about 900 square meters. The building has a square internal tower, used as a guardhouse, and is surrounded by land consisting of a small orchard and a plantation of 200 olive trees, for an area of almost one hectare. The main façade has two open arched outdoor terraces, while on the ground floor there is an uncovered terrace with three cross vaults with semicircular arches.
“This sale comes shortly after the sale of the prestigious Boutique Hotel in Florence, sold for 28 million euros – explains Cinzia Romanelli, CEO of Building Heritage – We are particularly proud to be able to include in our heritage, villas of the highest historical and artistic value, which belonged to the most important Italian artists and beyond”.
With 25 years of experience in Luxury Real Estate, since 2022 Building Heritage has been a partner for the Italian territory of Forbes Global Properties, the real estate arm of Forbes, which boasts 11,600 agents in 13 different countries. Today, Building Heritage – Forbes Global Properties is present in Italy with 8 offices (Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice, Naples Capri, Lake Como, Palermo, Catania), managed by a network of over 35 employees. There are more than 300 properties currently managed by the agency, for a value that exceeds one billion euros.
Already in the first year, Building Heritage – Forbes Global Properties, exceeded 60 million euros in sales. “The passion for beauty, good taste and extreme technical expertise represent, for Building Heritage, the mix of high performance with which it stands out, managing to enhance every prestigious property,” reads a press release. The company is led by Cinzia Romanelli, who specializes in residential sales and investments with a particular focus on historic Italian properties.