The Villa San Donato is a

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 ...

palace built by Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov on 42 hectares of marshland to the north of Florence at Polverosa which he had bought from the Catholic church, after he was made Russia's ambassador to the court of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

. The first stone was laid on 27 June 1827 and construction was completed in 1831. It includes an estates with rivers, lakes, churches, a menagerie, a silk factory, a zoo, gardens and a railway. The designs were by Giovan Battista Silvestri, architect to the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

. Besides vast private apartments, it includes a private 14-room museum built to contain the huge

Demidov collection The Demidov collection was a collection of artworks gathered by the Russian industrialist Count Nikolay Nikitich Demidov and considerably expanded by his second son Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato. It was mainly on show at ...

. The ceiling of the dome over the central rotonda has a fresco of 1827 by

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Accademia di ...

, repainted in 1841 by the French painter Jean Baptiste Fortuné de Fournier. It was seriously damaged in the Second World War. The adjacent

Demidoff Chapel of San Donato {{Infobox religious building , building_name = Cappella Demidoff , image = Ex-Cappella Demidoff, chiesa di Cristo, Firenze 02.JPG , caption = , image_size = 150px , location = Florence, Italy , geo ...

is now owned by the Church of Christ.

Gallery

Image:Jean-Baptiste-Fortune De Fournier Veduta del salone della villa Demidoff a San Donato (1841) 1.jpg, Central rotonda Image:Jean-Baptiste-Fortune De Fournier Veduta del salone della villa Demidoff a San Donato (1841) 2.jpg, Central rotonda Image:Villa san donato 2007 03.JPG, Loggia (2007) Image:Villa san donato 2007 08.JPG, Villa San Donato (2007) {{Authority control San Donato Demidov family Houses completed in 1831