Description of the attraction
Villa Cimbrone is a historic building dating back to at least the 11th century and located in the resort town of Ravello on the Amalfi Riviera. Despite its very impressive age, little has survived from the original building. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was significantly modified and expanded by the project of the English politician Ernest William Beckett, who used architectural elements collected throughout Italy and other parts of the world for this. In the same years, an extensive garden was laid out. As a result of all the modifications, today the villa, converted into a hotel, is a kind of medley.
Villa Cimbrone stands on the rocky cliff of Cimbronium, from which it got its name. The earliest mentions of it date back to the 11th century, when the villa belonged to the noble Akkonjojoko family. It later became the property of the wealthy and influential Fusco family, who also owned the local church of Sant'Angelo. Then the villa was part of the nearby monastery of Santa Chiara - it was in those years that the family coat of arms of Cardinal Della Rovere was placed on the ancient entrance gate. In the second half of the 19th century, the building became the property of the Amichi family and the resort town of Atrani.
Ernest Beckett visited Villa Cimbrone during his trip to Italy and literally fell in love with her. In 1904, he bought the villa and began a project for a large-scale reconstruction of the building and garden. It was on his initiative that loopholes, terraces and a covered gallery were built here, in which Gothic, Moorish and Venetian styles were mixed. The cliff-side garden has also been redesigned. In 1917, Beckett died in London, and his body was buried in Villa Cimbrone at the base of the Temple of Bacchus. After Beckett's death, the villa passed to his son. His daughter Lucy also lived here, who was a rose breeder in the 1930s.
In 1960, Villa Cimbrone was sold to the Vuilliers family, who used it as their residence, and a few years later turned into a hotel. In the 20th century, many celebrities were guests of the villa - Virginia Woolf, Henry Moore, Thomas Eliot, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, and others.
