The Medicean Villa dell'Ambrogiana, located near Montelupo Fiorentino, is one of the biggest residences left as a patrimony by the Medici, the famous family that governed Florence for centuries.

It was born as the residence of the Ambrogi and the Medici, who appreciated it peculiar closeness to fishing and hunting areas on the road to Pisa, later took it. In 1574, the works destined to transform the building into a luxury residence began. Soon, it became one of Cosimo III's favourite destinations for his holidays. Yet, it was with his predecessor, Ferdinando I, that an authentic reconstruction of the villa started in 1587 on the foundations of the previous building.
The layout of the villa leads to suppose that his planner must have been might have been Bernardo Buontalenti, yet, despite these suppositions, the architect who designed and drew the restructuring has never been identified. What is certain is that Raffaello Pagni and Gherardo Mechini initially supervised the works from 1602 on.
Today, the Manneristical grotto with water plays by Tadda is not visible any more. As it happened in other Medicean buildings, numerous painters made the decorations of walls and rooms. The works continued in the XVII century near the Villa with the construction of a church and a convent dedicated to San Pietro d'Alcantara.
With the arrival of the Lorraine, the Villa dell'Ambrogiana was included in the properties directly owned by the family, even if particular embellishments were not planned apart from some maintenance. Unfortunately, the closeness of the villa to the Arno has always jeopardized the beauty of the complex, which too many times was subject to the river floods that could compromise its structure. In the XIX century, the decision by the Grand Duke Leopoldo II to transform it into a remand home and then into a psychiatric prison contributed to the decadence of this place.
Fortunately, the fate of the villa twisted with the intervention of the Fondazione Michelucci that engaged in the recovery of the complex. It started with the pulling down of the walls that had always isolated the villa from Montelupo and continued with an intervention of classification of the park, that can now be visited by all those who want to have a stroll amidst greenery in the suggestive background of the Ambrogiana.