Villa Lysis (initially, La Gloriette; today, Villa Fersen) is a villa on

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 ...

built by industrialist and poet

Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen (20 February 1880 – 5 November 1923) was a French novelist and poet. His life forms the basis of a fictionalised 1959 novel by Roger Peyrefitte entitled '' The Exile of Capri'' ''(L'exilé de Capri)''. In 190 ...

in 1905. "Dedicated to the youth of love" (''dédiée à la jeunesse d'amour''), it was Fersen's self-chosen exile from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

after a sex scandal involving Parisian schoolboys and nude (or nearly nude) ''

tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; plural: ), French for "living picture", is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrica ...

''.

History

Construction and early years

Fersen purchased the plot in 1904 for 15,000 lire from the Salvia family. The villa's designer is unknown; for many years it was believed that French artist Edouard Chimot had designed the structure (due to his involvement in a trial following an accident at the construction site); however, a recent analysis of letters from

to Chimot shows that Chimot did not perform that design. The garden around the villa was designed by Mimi Ruggiero, who planted the laurel and myrtle in honor of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

The house was described in detail by

Roger Peyrefitte Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

in his novel ''

The Exile of Capri ''The Exile of Capri'' is a 1959 novel by French writer Roger Peyrefitte, based on the lives of Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen and Nino Cesarini. Plot Summary The book starts with a handsome Frenchman in his early 30s meeting a beautiful young se ...

'' (1959), a fictionalized account of Adelswärd-Fersen's years on Capri together with his lover Nino Cesarini. Plüschow, Wilhelm von (1852-1930) - n

Fersen became addicted to

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

on a trip to Ceylon during construction of the house (Peyrefitte relates that a worker was killed during construction, and Fersen decided to travel until the local anger against at him had subsided) and after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he started using

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

. He eventually committed suicide in 1923 by ingesting an overdose of cocaine. After Fersen's death, the villa was left first to his sister Germaine, but with the

usufruct Usufruct () is a limited real right (or ''in rem'' right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of ''usus'' and ''fructus'': * ''Usus'' (''use'') is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directl ...

left to Nino Cesarini. Cesarini sold the rights for 200,000 lire to Germaine and went to live in Rome. Germaine later gave the villa to her daughter, the Countess of Castelbianco. The Countess sold the villa to the millionaire Felix Mechoulan.

Later years

Maintenance and upkeep of the villa ceased after 1934, so the house was essentially in ruins by the 1980s. In 1989, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage decreed the building a historical monument. The building was restored in the 1990s by the Lysis Funds Association (founded in 1986 by Neapolitan gallery owner Lucio Amelio) and the Municipality of Capri. Tuscan architect Marcello Quiriconi and Jacques Fersen biographer

supervised the work. All the stucco decorations were restored by Capri artist Antonio Senesi, grandson of the Senesi who decorated the villa during its original construction. In 1995, the Mechoulan family sold the villa to the lawyer Manfredonia, who resold it in 1998 to an American businessman of Italian descent Armando Campione, who never lived in the villa, dying in the hit-and-run accident in Tahiti in soon after purchase. The villa was finally purchased by the Municipality of Capri in January 2001. Since the restoration, Villa Lysis has been open to tourists. It may be rented for special occasions, and cultural events have taken place there, such as an exhibition of photographs by

Wilhelm von Gloeden Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August von Gloeden (September 16, 1856 – February 16, 1931), commonly known as Baron von Gloeden, was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boy ...

in 2009. In March 2010, the villa was put up for sale, listed as being with a garden.

Architecture and fittings

Architecturally, the house is mainly

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

with Neoclassical elements; the style might be called "Neoclassical decadent." The well-known

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inscription above the front steps (''AMORI ET DOLORI SACRVM'', "a shrine to love and sorrow") highlights Fersen's Romantic view of himself. The inscription was placed on the northeastern corner of the wall by

Nino Cesarini Antonio Cesarini (30 September 1889 – 25 October 1943), better known by the diminutive name Nino, was a model for several artists, such as the photographer Wilhelm von Plüschow, painters Paul Hoecker and Umberto Brunelleschi and sculptor Fran ...

. "Lysis" is a reference to the

Socratic dialogue Socratic dialogue ( grc, Σωκρατικὸς λόγος) is a genre of literary prose developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon and all involve Socrates as the p ...

Lysis Lysis ( ) is the breaking down of the membrane of a cell, often by viral, enzymic, or osmotic (that is, "lytic" ) mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a ''lysate''. In molecular bio ...

'' discussing friendship, and by our modern notion, homosexual love. In the atrium, a marble stairway, with wrought iron balustrade, leads to the first floor where there are bedrooms with panoramic terraces, and a dining room. Fersen's large room was on the upper floor, facing East, with three windows overlooking 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 ...

and three towards Mount Tiberio. Nino also had a room on the upper floor. On the ground floor there is a lounge decorated with blue majolica and white ceramic, facing out over the Gulf of Naples. In the basement, there is a room for smoking

, also known as the Chinese room.

Grounds

The large garden is connected to the villa by a flight of steps which leads to a portico with ionic columns. The ruins of

Villa Jovis Villa Jovis ("Villa of Jupiter") is a Roman palace on Capri, southern Italy, built by emperor Tiberius and completed in AD 27. Tiberius ruled mainly from there until his death in AD 37. Villa Jovis is the largest of the twelve Tiberian villas ...

, one of

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

' twelve villas on Capri, are a few hundred metres to the east-southeast of Villa Lysis.

References

External links

Capri Tourism: Villa LysisPictures of Villa Lysis todayMuseoDiffuso: Villa Lysis
{{Capri topics Buildings and structures in Capri, Campania

Houses completed in 1905 Art Nouveau architecture in Italy Neoclassical architecture in Campania Art Nouveau houses 1905 establishments in Italy