A villa is a type of house that was originally an

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...

country house. Since its origins in the

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

. Then they gradually re-evolved through the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

into elegant upper-class country homes. In the Early Modern period, any comfortable detached house with a garden near a city or town was likely to be described as a villa; most survivals have now been engulfed by

suburbia A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

. In modern parlance, "villa" can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

double villa to, in some countries, especially around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, residences of above average size in the countryside.

Roman

s included: * the ''villa urbana'', a suburban or country seat that could easily be reached from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

or another city for a night or two * the ''

villa rustica Villa rustica () was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a farmhouse or villa set in the countryside and with an agricultural section, which applies to the vast majority of Roman villas. In some cases they were at the centre of a large ...

'', the farm-house estate that was permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied. The Roman ''villae rusticae'' at the heart of ''

latifundia A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, o ...

'' were the earliest versions of what later and elsewhere became called

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s. * the ''

otium ''Otium'', a Latin abstract term, has a variety of meanings, including leisure time in which a person can enjoy eating, playing, relaxing, contemplation and academic endeavors. It sometimes, but not always, relates to a time in a person's reti ...

villa'', for rural retirement or pleasure. In terms of design, there was often little difference in the main residence between these types at any particular level of size, but the presence or absence of farm outbuildings reflected the size and function of the estate. Not included as ''villae'' were the ''

domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ma ...

'', city houses for the élite and privileged classes, and the ''

insulae The Latin word ''insula'' (literally meaning "island", plural ''insulae'') was used in Roman cities to mean either a city block in a city plan, i.e. a building area surrounded by four streets, or, later, a type of apartment building that occup ...

'', blocks of

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ...

s for the rest of the population. In ''

Satyricon The ''Satyricon'', ''Satyricon'' ''liber'' (''The Book of Satyrlike Adventures''), or ''Satyrica'', is a Latin work of fiction believed to have been written by Gaius Petronius, though the manuscript tradition identifies the author as Titus Petro ...

'' (1st century CE),

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
A concentration of Imperial villas existed on the

Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (province of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It i ...

, on the Isle of

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...

, at

Monte Circeo Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo ( it, Promontorio del Circeo , la, Mons Circeius) is a mountain promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes.located on the southwest coast of Italy near San Felice Circeo. At the nort ...

and at

Antium Antium was an ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conquere ...

. Examples include the

Villa of the Papyri The Villa of the Papyri ( it, Villa dei Papiri, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after ...

Herculaneum Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Like the nea ...

; and the

Villa of the Mysteries The Villa of the Mysteries ( it, Villa dei Misteri) is a well-preserved suburban ancient Roman villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, southern Italy. It is famous for the series of exquisite frescos in Room 5, which are usually interpreted as showin ...

and Villa of the Vettii in

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

. There was an important villa maritima in

Barcola Barcola is a maritime neighbourhood of Trieste, Italy. It is a popular tourist place with beaches and long promenades, near the Habsburg-established Miramare Castle. Barcola is highly valued for the high quality of life and the free access to the ...

near Trieste. This villa was located directly on the coast and was divided into terraces in a representation area in which luxury and power was displayed, a separate living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath. Not far from this noble place, which was already popular with the Romans because of its favorable microclimate, one of the most important Villa Maritima of its time, the

Miramare Castle Miramare Castle ( it, Castello di Miramare; es, Castillo de Miramar; german: Schloss Miramar; sl, Grad Miramar) is a 19th-century castle direct on the Gulf of Trieste between Barcola and Grignano in Trieste, northeastern Italy. It was built ...

, was built in the 19th century. Wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur ( Tivoli and

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with ...

), such as at

Hadrian's Villa Hadrian's Villa ( it, Villa Adriana) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built c. AD 120 by Roman Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli outside Rome. The site is owned by the Republic of ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near

Arpinum Arpino ( Southern Latian dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two consuls of the ...

, which he inherited.

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their ''latifundium'' villas, where they drank their own

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

and pressed their own

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers, it has been said that the economic independence of later rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

In Roman Britannia

Archaeologists have meticulously examined numerous Roman villas in England. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian societies of fields and

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s, perhaps even

tile Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...

works or

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

, ranged round a high-status power centre with its baths and gardens. The grand villa at

Woodchester Woodchester is a Gloucestershire village in the Nailsworth (or Woodchester) Valley, a valley in the South Cotswolds in England, running southwards from Stroud along the A46 road to Nailsworth. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was ...

preserved its

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

floors when the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

parish church was built (not by chance) upon its site. Grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial ''villa rustica'' at

Fishbourne Fishbourne may refer to: Places * Fishbourne, Isle of Wight, a village * Fishbourne, West Sussex, a village ** Fishbourne (UK electoral ward) * Fishbourne Roman Palace, an archaeological site in West Sussex People * William Fishbourn (1677–17 ...

near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

was built (uncharacteristically) as a large open rectangle, with

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

s enclosing gardens entered through a portico. Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman towns in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life. ''Villae rusticae'' are essential in the Empire's economy. Fishbourne model

Two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right angles, even to enclose a

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

. The other kind featured an aisled central hall like a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards.

Timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

construction, carefully fitted with mortises and tenons and

dowel A dowel is a cylindrical rod, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a ''dowel rod''. Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins. Dowels are commonly used as structural ...

led together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

have been found, as well as ironwork window

grille Grill or grille may refer to: Food * Barbecue grill, a device or surface used for cooking food, usually fuelled by gas or charcoal, or the part of a cooker that performs this function * Flattop grill, a cooking device often used in restaurants, ...

Monastery villas of Late Antiquity

With the decline and collapse of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned,

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

, and burned by

invaders in the fifth century, but the concept of an isolated, self-sufficient agrarian working community, housed close together, survived into Anglo-Saxon culture as the ''

vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...

'', with its inhabitants – if formally bound to the land – as ''

villein A villein, otherwise known as ''cottar'' or ''crofter'', is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and social status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them ...

s''. In regions on the Continent,

aristocrats Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individual

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s; these might become the nuclei of

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

. In this way, the Italian villa system of

late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

survived into the

early Medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

period in the form of monasteries that withstood the disruptions of the

Gothic War (535–554) The Gothic War between the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. It was one of the last o ...

and the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...

. About 529

Benedict of Nursia Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...

established his influential monastery of

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...

in the ruins of a villa at Subiaco that had belonged to

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

. From the sixth to the eighth century,

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context ...

villas in the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

royal

fisc Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc (from Latin ''fiscus,'' whence we derive "fiscal") applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was. ...

were repeatedly donated as sites for monasteries under royal patronage in

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

–

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés Saint-Maur-des-Fossés () is a commune in Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southea ...

and

Fleury Abbey Fleury Abbey (Floriacum) in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loiret, France, founded in about 640, is one of the most celebrated Benedictine monasteries of Western Europe, and possesses the relics of St. Benedict of Nursia. Its site on the banks of the Lo ...

provide examples. In Germany a famous example is

Echternach Echternach ( lb, Iechternach or (locally) ) is a commune with town status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern Luxembourg. Echternach lies near the border with Germany, and is the oldest town in L ...

; as late as 698,

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. Early life His fathe ...

established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach near

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

, presented to him by Irmina, daughter of

Dagobert II Dagobert II ( la, Dagober(c)tus; ang, Dægberht; died 679) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death. He is one of the more obscure Merovingians. He has been considered a martyr since at least the ni ...

, king of the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

. Kintzheim was ''Villa Regis'', the "villa of the king". Around 590,

Saint Eligius Saint Eligius (also Eloy, Eloi or Loye; french: Éloi; 11 June 588 – 1 December 660 AD) is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and Coin collecting, coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of veterinarians, the Royal Elect ...

was born in a highly placed

family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

, in

Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...

(now France). The

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

Stavelot Stavelot (; german: Stablo ; wa, Ståvleu) is a town and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Francorchamps and Stavelot. It is best known as the home of Sp ...

was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

and the abbey of

Vézelay Vézelay () is a commune in the department of Yonne in the north-central French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is a defensible hill town famous for Vézelay Abbey. The town and its 11th-century Romanesque Basilica of St Magdalene are de ...

had a similar founding.

Post-Roman era

In post-Roman times a ''villa'' referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or

farmstead. It was economically as self-sufficient as a ''

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

'' and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it as

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

were ''

s''. The

inherited the concept, followed by the Carolingian French but the later French term was ''basti'' or ''bastide.'' ''Villa''/''Vila'' (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish and Portuguese placenames, like

Vila Real Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the North region. It is also the seat of the Douro intermunicipal community and of the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro historical province. The Vila Real municipality covers ...

and

Villadiego Villadiego is a Spanish town and municipality in the comarca of Odra-Pisuerga, in west of the province of Burgos, Castilla y León. It is seat of the comarca of Odra-Pisuerga. It is located 39 kilometres away from Burgos. According to demographi ...

: a ''villa''/''vila'' is a town with a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

(''

fuero (), (), () or () is a Spanish legal term and concept. The word comes from Latin , an open space used as a market, tribunal and meeting place. The same Latin root is the origin of the French terms and , and the Portuguese terms and ; all ...

'' or ''

foral 200px, Foral of Castro Verde - Portugal The word ''foral'' ({{IPA-pt, fuˈɾaɫ, eu, plural: ''forais'') is a noun derived from the Portuguese word ''foro'', ultimately from Latin ''forum'', equivalent to Spanish ''fuero'', Galician ''foro'', Ca ...

'') of lesser importance than a ''ciudad''/''cidade'' ("city"). When it is associated with a personal name, ''villa'' was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic distinction between ''villas'' and ''ciudades'' a purely honorific one.

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

is the ''Villa y Corte'', the villa considered to be separate from the formerly mobile

royal court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

, but the much smaller

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ; en, "Royal City") is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. History It was founde ...

was declared ''ciudad'' by the Spanish crown.

Italian Renaissance

Tuscany

In 14th and 15th century Italy, a ''villa'' once more connoted a country house, like the first

Medici villas The Medici villas are a series of rural building complexes in Tuscany which were owned by members of the Medici family between the 15th century and the 17th century. The villas served several functions: they were the country palaces of the Medic ...

, the

Villa del Trebbio The Villa del Trebbio is a Medici villa in Tuscany, Italy. Description The villa is located near San Piero a Sieve in the Mugello region, in the province of Florence, in the area from which the Medici family originated. It was one of the first ...

and that at

Cafaggiolo The Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo is a villa situated near the Tuscan town of Barberino di Mugello in the valley of the River Sieve, some 25 kilometres north of Florence, central Italy. It was one of the oldest and most favoured of the Me ...

, both strong fortified houses built in the 14th century in the

Mugello region The Mugello is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, in Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Flo ...

near

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In 1450, Giovanni de' Medici commenced on a hillside the

Villa Medici in Fiesole The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built for the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed as Medici Villas and Gar ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, probably the first villa created under the instructions of

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

, who theorized the features of the new idea of villa in his '' De re aedificatoria''. These first examples of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

villa predate the age of

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...

, who added the Villa di Poggio a Caiano by

Giuliano da Sangallo Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giulia ...

, begun in 1470, in

Poggio a Caiano Poggio a Caiano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town, birthplace of Philip Mazzei, lies south of the provincial capital of Prato. Sister towns Poggio a Caiano has two sister cities: * Charlottesvi ...

Province of Prato The province of Prato ( it, provincia di Prato) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Prato. It was formed from part of the province of Florence in 1992. The province has an area of and a total population of a ...

. From Tuscany the idea of ''villa'' was spread again through

Renaissance Italy The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

and Europe.

Tuscan villa gardens

The

Quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

villa gardens were treated as a fundamental and aesthetic link between a residential building and the outdoors, with views over a humanized agricultural

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

, at that time the only desirable aspect of

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

. Later villas and gardens include the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

and

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...

in Florence, and the

Villa di Pratolino The Villa di Pratolino was a Renaissance patrician villa in Vaglia, Tuscany, Italy. It was mostly demolished in 1822. Its remains are now part of the Villa Demidoff, 12 km north of Florence, reached from the main road to Bologna. History Th ...

Vaglia Vaglia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about north of Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of ...

Rome

Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the first ''

villa suburbana A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

'' built since Antiquity, was the

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa *Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...

or ''palazzetto'', designed by

Antonio del Pollaiuolo Antonio del Pollaiuolo ( , , ; 17 January 1429/14334 February 1498), also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio Pollaiuolo (also spelled Pollaiolo), was an Italian painter, sculptor, engraver, and goldsmith during the Italian Renai ...

and built on the slope above the

Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...

The

Villa Madama Villa Madama is a Renaissance-style rural palace (villa) located on Via di Villa Madama #250 in Rome, Italy. Located west of the city center and a few miles north of the Vatican, and just south of the Foro Olimpico Stadium. Even though incomplete, ...

, the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out by

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-centu ...

in 1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century.

Villa Albani The Villa Albani (later Villa Albani-Torlonia) is a villa in Rome, built on the Via Salaria for Cardinal Alessandro Albani. It was built between 1747 and 1767 by the architect Carlo Marchionni in a project heavily influenced by otherssuch as Gi ...

was built near the Porta Salaria. Other are the

Villa Borghese Villa Borghese or Villa Borghese Pinciana ('Borghese family{{!Borghese villa on the Pincian Hill') is the villa built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio (and, after his death, finished by his assistant Giovanni Vasanzio), developing sketches by Scip ...

; the

Villa Doria Pamphili The Villa Doria Pamphili is a seventeenth-century villa with what is today the largest landscaped public park in Rome, Italy. It is located in the quarter of Monteverde (Rome), Monteverde, on the ''Gianicolo'' (or the Roman Janiculum), just outsid ...

(1650); the

Villa Giulia The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1551–1553 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of Etruscan art and artifacts. Hi ...

Pope Julius III Pope Julius III ( la, Iulius PP. III; it, Giulio III; 10 September 1487 – 23 March 1555), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 February 1550 to his death in March 155 ...

(1550), designed by

Vignola Vignola ( Modenese: ; Bolognese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. Its economy is based on agriculture, especially fruit farming, but there are also mechanical industries and service companies. The c ...

. The Roman villas

Villa Ludovisi The Villa Ludovisi was a suburban villa in Rome, built in the 17th century on the area once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust (''Horti Sallustiani'') near the Porta Salaria. On an assemblage of vineyards purchased from Giovanni Antonio Orsini, C ...

and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth century in the wake of the

real estate bubble A real-estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real-estate markets, and typically follow a land boom. A land boom is the rapid increase ...

that took place in Rome after the seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome. The cool hills of

gained the

Villa Aldobrandini The Villa Aldobrandini is a villa in Frascati, Italy. It is still owned and lived in by the Aldobrandini family, and known as Belvedere for its location overlooking the valley toward the city of Rome. It is the only grand Papal garden not owned ...

(1592); the

Villa Falconieri The Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy. History The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 162 ...

and the

Villa Mondragone Villa Mondragone is a patrician villa originally in the territory of the Italian comune of Frascati (Latium, central Italy), now in the territory of Monte Porzio Catone (Alban Hills). It lies on a hill 416m above sea-level, in an area called, ...

. The

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Herita ...

near Tivoli is famous for the water play in its terraced

gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

. The

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

was on the edge of Rome, on the

Pincian Hill The Pincian Hill (; it, Pincio ; la, Mons Pincius) is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical centre of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius. It was outside the original boundaries of th ...

, when it was built in 1540. Besides these designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city, other Italian villas were remade from a '' rocca'' or castello, as the family seat of power, such as

Villa Caprarola The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese, R ...

for the Farnese. Near

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

in Tuscany, the

Villa Cetinale Villa Cetinale is a 17th-century Baroque villa and Italian garden in Tuscany. The property is located in the hamlet of Cetinale near Sovicille, about west of Siena, in Tuscany, Italy. The property is best known for the expansive gardens, ar ...

was built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi. He employed

Carlo Fontana Carlo Fontana (1634 or 1638–1714) was an Italian architect originating from today's Canton Ticino, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture. Biography There seems to be no proof that ...

, pupil of

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

to transform the villa and dramatic gardens in a

Roman Baroque Roman Baroque may refer to either: * Styles in Rome of any form of the arts in the Baroque period, roughly from 1600 to the late 18th century. Rome was a leading centre for Baroque architecture and Baroque painting in particular. * Styles in anc ...

style by 1680. The

Villa Lante Villa Lante is a Mannerism, Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere ...

garden is one of the most sublime creations of the Italian villa in the landscape, completed in the 17th century.

Venice

In the later 16th century in the northeastern Italian Peninsula the Palladian villas of the Veneto, designed by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

(1508–1580), were built in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

in the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting. He often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas. Examples are the

Villa Emo Villa Emo is one of the many creations conceived by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. It is a patrician villa located in the Veneto region of northern Italy, near the village of Fanzolo di Vedelago, in the Province of Treviso. The pat ...

, the

Villa Godi A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became sm ...

, the

Villa Forni Cerato The Villa Forni Cerato is a 16th-century villa in Montecchio Precalcino, Province of Vicenza, northern Italy. Its design is attributed to Andrea Palladio and his client is assumed to have been Girolamo Forni, a wealthy wood merchant who supplied ...

, the

Villa Capra "La Rotonda" Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza in northern Italy designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The villa's correct name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but it is also known as "La Rotonda", "Villa Rot ...

, and

Villa Foscari Villa Foscari is a patrician villa in Mira, near Venice, northern Italy, designed by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. It is also known as ''La Malcontenta'' ("The Discontented"), a nickname which—according to a legend—it re ...

. The Villas are grouped into an association (Associazione Ville Venete) and offer touristic itineraries and accommodation possibilities.

Villas elsewhere

17th century

Soon after in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

England, following his 1613–1615

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

designed and built the

Queen's House Queen's House is a former royal residence built between 1616 and 1635 near Greenwich Palace, a few miles down-river from the City of London and now in the London Borough of Greenwich. It presently forms a central focus of what is now the Old Ro ...

between 1615 and 1617 in an early

Palladian architecture Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style adaptation in another country. The Palladian villa style renewed its influence in different countries and eras and remained influential for over four hundred years, with the

Neo-Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

a part of the late 17th century and on

Renaissance Revival architecture Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

period.

18th and 19th centuries

In the early 18th century the English took up the term, and applied it to compact houses in the country, especially those accessible from London:

Chiswick House Chiswick House is a Neo-Palladian style villa in the Chiswick district of London, England. A "glorious" example of Neo-Palladian architecture in west London, the house was designed and built by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753 ...

is an example of such a "party villa". Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and

, soon

villas dotted the valley of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

and English countryside.

Marble Hill House Marble Hill House is a Neo-Palladian villa, now Grade I listed, in Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It was built between 1724 and 1729 as the home of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, who lived there until her ...

in England was conceived originally as a "villa" in the 18th-century sense. In many ways the late 18th century

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

, by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States is a

Palladian Revival Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

villa. Other examples of the period and style are Hammond-Harwood House in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

; and many pre-

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

or antebellum

plantations A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

, such as

Westover Plantation Westover Plantation is a historic colonial tidewater plantation located on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. Established in c. 1730–1750, it is the homestead of the Byrd family of Virginia. State Route 5, ...

and many other

James River plantations James River plantations were established in the Virginia Colony along the James River between the mouth at Hampton Roads and the head of navigation at the Fall Line where Richmond is today. History The colony struggled for five years after its es ...

as well dozens of Antebellum era plantations in the rest of the

Old South Geographically, the U.S. states known as the Old South are those in the Southern United States that were among the original Thirteen Colonies. The region term is differentiated from the Deep South and Upper South. From a cultural and social s ...

functioned as the Roman

Latifundium A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious" and ''fundus'', "farm, estate") is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, ...

villas had. A later revival, in the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

and early 20th century, produced

The Breakers The Breakers is a Gilded Age mansion located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, US. It was built between 1893 and 1895 as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family. The 70-room mans ...

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

Filoli Filoli, also known as the Bourn-Roth Estate, is a country house set in of formal gardens surrounded by a estate, located in Woodside, California, about south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Reservoir, on the eastern ...

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

, and

Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...

Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establish ...

; by architects-landscape architects such as

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance fa� ...

Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw t ...

, and

Beatrix Farrand Beatrix Cadwalader Farrand (née Jones; June 19, 1872 – February 28, 1959) was an American landscape gardener and landscape architect. Her career included commissions to design about 110 gardens for private residences, estates and country ho ...

. In the nineteenth century, the term ''villa'' was extended to describe any large

an house that was free-standing in a

d plot of ground. By the time 'semi-detached villas' were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse. 060217-Luftaufnahme-Striesen

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the creation of large "Villenkolonien" in the German speaking countries, wealthy residential areas that were completely made up of large mansion houses and often built to an artfully created masterplan. Also many large mansions for the wealthy German industrialists were built, such as

Villa Hügel The Villa Hügel is a 19th-century mansion in Bredeney, now part of Essen, Germany. It was built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp in 1870-1873 as his main residence and was the home of the Krupp family until after World War II. More recently, th ...

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

. The Villenkolonie of

Lichterfelde West Lichterfelde West is part of Lichterfelde (Berlin), Lichterfelde in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough of Berlin. It is known for its historic mansions, tree-lined streets and green squares. Next to Dahlem (Berlin), Dahlem and Grunewald (locality), G ...

in Berlin was conceived after an extended trip by the architect through the South of England. Representative

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

mansions in Germany include the

Heiligendamm Heiligendamm () is a German seaside resort founded in 1793. It is the oldest seaside spa in continental Europe. Heiligendamm is part of the town Bad Doberan in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and historically belongs to Mecklenburg. The clus ...

and other

resort architecture Resort architecture (german: Bäderarchitektur) is an architectural style that is especially characteristic of spas and seaside resorts on the German Baltic coast. The style evolved since the foundation of Heiligendamm in 1793, and flourished espec ...

mansions at the Baltic Sea, Rose Island and

King's House on Schachen The King's House on Schachen (german: Königshaus am Schachen) is a small villa (''Schlösschen'') at Schachen, Wetterstein Formation, about 10 km south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany, built by Ludwig II of Bavaria. The castle was co ...

in the

Bavarian Alps The Bavarian Alps (german: Bayerische Alpen) is a collective name for several mountain ranges of the Northern Limestone Alps within the German state of Bavaria. Geography The term in its wider sense refers to that part of the Eastern Alps that ...

Villa Dessauer The Villa Dessauer is a mansion in Bamberg, Germany, which is used as an art gallery by the local City Council. The edifice was built in 1884 by the Jewish merchant Carl Dessauer. During the Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National S ...

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...

, Villa Wahnfried in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

, Drachenburg near

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Hammerschmidt Villa Hammerschmidt Villa (german: Villa Hammerschmidt) is a villa in the German city of Bonn that served as the primary official seat and primary official residence of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 until 1994. President Ri ...

, the

Liebermann Villa The Liebermann Villa is the former summer residence of the German painter Max Liebermann. It is located directly at the shores of Lake Wannsee in Berlin. It has been open to public since April 30, 2006 and shows a collection of Liebermann's pain ...

and Britz House in Berlin, Albrechtsberg, Eckberg, Villa Stockhausen and in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, in

Feldafing Feldafing () is a municipality in Starnberg district, Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, southwest of Munich. History The history of Feldafing begins on the Roseninsel or Rose Island, the only island in Lake ...

, in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Jenisch House Jenisch House (''Jenisch-Haus'') is a country house in Hamburg built in the 19th century and an example of Hanseatic lifestyle and neoclassical architecture. As of 2008, Jenisch House is the home of the ''Museum für Kunst und Kultur an der Elbe'' ...

and Budge-Palais in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, and in Königstein,

Villa Stuck The Villa Stuck, built in 1898 and established as a museum in 1992 and located in the Munich quarter of Bogenhausen, is a museum and historic house devoted to the life and work of the painter Franz Stuck. In contrast to the Classical architectu ...

and in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Schloss Klink ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German language, German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian langu ...

Lake Müritz A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

Villa Ludwigshöhe Villa Ludwigshöhe is a former summer residence of Ludwig I of Bavaria overlooking Edenkoben and Rhodt unter Rietburg in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Villa Ludwigshöhe is located at the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Villa Haux Villa Haux is a villa in the Art Nouveau style built in 1908 by architects Richard Böklen and Carl Feil in the southern German town of Ebingen. It was built for Kommerzienrat Friedrich Haux (1860–1929), entrepreneur in the local textile in ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

and Weinberg House in Waren. In France the

Château de Ferrières Château de Ferrières () is a French château built between 1855 and 1859 for Baron James de Rothschild in the Goût Rothschild style located in central France, some 26 km east of Paris. Rothschild ownership of the Château de Ferrières was ...

is an example of the Italian

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style villa – and in Britain the

Mentmore Towers Mentmore Towers, historically known simply as "Mentmore", is a 19th-century English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. Sir Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George ...

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

. A representative building of this style in Germany is

Villa Haas Villa Haas is a historical villa in the small city of Sinn, Hesse located at the western edge of the Hörre in Germany (Lahn-Dill-Kreis). The villa, the park and the surrounding streets "Hansastrasse / Rudolfstrasse" are cultural monuments due to ...

(designed by Ludwig Hofmann) in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

Villa Hakasalmi Villa Hakasalmi ( fi, Hakasalmen huvila, sv, Villa Hagasund), also known as Villa Karamzin, is an architecturally and historically important 19th-century villa located in the Etu-Töölö district of central Helsinki, Finland. The villa is situ ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

(built in 1834–46) represents Empire-era villa architecture. It was the home of

Aurora Karamzin Eva Aurora Charlotta Karamzin (née Stjernvall) (1 / 7 August 1808 Ulvila – 13 May 1902 Helsinki) was a Finnish philanthropist. Her better-known names are Princess Aurora Demidova and Aurora Karamzin, titles that were acquired after her firs ...

(1808–1902) at the end of the 19th century and is now the city museum of Helsinki,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

20th – 21st centuries

Europe

During the 19th and 20th century, the term "villa" became widespread for detached mansions in Europe. Special forms are for instance spa villas (''Kurvillen'' in German) and seaside villas (''Bädervillen'' in German), that became especially popular at the end of the 19th century. The tradition established back then continued throughout the 20th century and even until today. Another trend was the erection of rather minimalist mansions in the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

style since the 1920s, that also continues until today. In Denmark, Norway and Sweden "villa" denotes most forms of

single-family detached home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

s, regardless of size and standard.

Americas

The villa concept lived and lives on in the

hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...

s of Latin America and the

estancia An estancia is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias in the southern South American grasslands, the ''pampas'', have historically been estates used to raise livestock, such as cattle or sheep. In Pu ...

s of Brazil and Argentina. The oldest are original Portuguese and Spanish Colonial architecture; followed after independences in the Americas from Spain and Portugal, by the

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the ...

style with regional variations. In the 20th century International Style villas were designed by

Roberto Burle Marx Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredite ...

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

Luis Barragán Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín (March 9, 1902 – November 22, 1988) was a Mexican architect and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international ...

, and other architects developing a unique Euro-Latin synthesized aesthetic. Villas are particularly well represented in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and the West Coast of the United States, where they were originally commissioned by well travelled "upper-class" patrons moving on from the Queen Anne style

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

and

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

. Communities such as Montecito,

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, Bel Air,

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

, and

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

in Southern California, and Atherton and

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

are a few examples of villa density. The popularity of

Mediterranean Revival architecture Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonial ...

in its various iterations over the last century has been consistently used in that region and in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Just a few of the notable early architects were

Wallace Neff Edwin Wallace Neff (January 28, 1895 – June 8, 1982) was an architect based in Southern California and was largely responsible for developing the region's distinct architectural style referred to as "California" style. Neff was a student of ...

Addison Mizner Addison Cairns Mizner (December 12, 1872 – February 5, 1933) was an American architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire archit ...

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect. He was also a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms. He designed many houses for the rich, in additio ...

, and George Washington Smith. A few examples are the

Harold Lloyd Estate The Harold Lloyd Estate, also known as Greenacres, is a large mansion and landscaped estate located in the Benedict Canyon section of Beverly Hills, California. Built in the late 1920s by silent film star Harold Lloyd, it remained Lloyd's home ...

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

, Medici scale

Hearst Castle Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his archit ...

on the

Central Coast of California The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles County and south of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and includes the rugged, undeveloped ...

, and

Villa Montalvo The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterran ...

in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

Saratoga, California Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Located in Silicon Valley, in the southern Bay Area, its population was 31,051 at the 2020 census. Saratoga is an affluent residential community, known for its wineries, restaurants, and attra ...

, Villa Vizcaya in Coconut Grove, Miami, American Craftsman versions are the Gamble House (Pasadena, California), Gamble House and the villas by Greene and Greene in Pasadena, California

Modern villas

Modern architecture has produced some important examples of buildings known as villas: * Villa Noailles by Robert Mallet-Stevens in Hyères, France * Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier in Poissy, France * Villa Mairea by Alvar Aalto in Noormarkku, Finland * Villa Tugendhat by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Brno, Czech Republic * Villa Lewaro by Vertner Tandy in Irvington, New York Country-villa examples: * Hollyhock House (1919) by Frank Lloyd Wright in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood * Gropius House by Walter Gropius (1937) in Lincoln, Massachusetts * Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright (1939) in Pennsylvania, U.S. * Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Plano, Illinois * Kaufmann Desert House by Richard Neutra (1946) in Palm Springs, California * Auldbrass Plantation by Frank Lloyd Wright (1940–1951) in Beaufort County, South Carolina * Palácio da Alvorada by

(1958) in Brasília, Brazil * Getty Villa, in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.

Other

Today, the term "villa" is often applied to vacation rental properties. In the United Kingdom the term is used for high quality detached homes in warm destinations, particularly

and the Mediterranean. The term is also used in Pakistan, and in some of the Caribbean islands such as Jamaica, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin (island), Saint Martin, Guadeloupe, British Virgin Islands, and others. It is similar for the coastal resort areas of Baja California Sur and mainland Mexico, and for hospitality industry destination resort "luxury bungalows" in various locations worldwide. In Indonesia, the term "villa" is applied to Dutch colonial country houses (''landhuis''). Nowadays, the term is more popularly applied to vacation rental usually located in countryside area. In Australia, "villas" or "villa units" are terms used to describe a type of townhouse complex which contains, possibly smaller attached or detached houses of up to 3–4 bedrooms that were built since the early 1980s. Housing in New Zealand, In New Zealand, "villa" refers almost exclusively to Victorian era, Victorian and Edwardian era, Edwardian wooden weatherboard houses mainly built between 1880 and 1914, characterised by high ceilings (often ), sash windows, and a long entrance hall. In Cambodia, "villa" is used as a loanword in the local language of Khmer, and is generally used to describe any type of detached townhouse that features yard space. The term doesn't apply to any particular architectural style or size, the only features that distinguish a Khmer villa from another building are the yard space and being fully detached. The terms "twin-villa" and "mini-villa" have been coined meaning semi-detached and smaller versions respectively. Generally, these would be more luxurious and spacious houses than the more common row houses. The yard space would also typically feature some form of garden, trees or greenery. Generally, these would be properties in major cities, where there is more wealth and hence more luxurious houses.

Notes

{{Authority control Architectural history House styles House types Architecture in Italy Villas, Vacation rental Tourist accommodations

Roman

In Roman Britannia

Monastery villas of Late Antiquity

Post-Roman era

Italian Renaissance

Tuscany

Tuscan villa gardens

Rome

Venice

Villas elsewhere

17th century

18th and 19th centuries

20th – 21st centuries

Europe

Americas

Modern villas

Other

See also

Notes