Margherini Graziani Mansion
From the middle of the hill, Graziani Mansion – a splendid example of late-Renaissance noble residence – overlooks the wide and open Tiber Valley, a smooth, mainly flat landscape marked by low hills and covered by cultivated fields and woods, not far from the ancient villa of Pliny the Younger in Tuscis.
Carlo Graziani, a member of the family of Tuscan origin, entrusted the construction of the villa of Celalba near San Giustino on a medieval fortification (some historians believe a Roman fort was erected here) to architect Antonio Cantagallina of Sansepolcro, a pupil of Vasari and Bruni in Rome. The whole structure, overlooked by a 17m tower, features a square plan and develops on three stories. Particularly elegant is the central balcony on the facade, developing from the second to the third level with arches supported by slender columns, according to a style reminiscent of Vasari’s Bufalini castle in San Giustino, not far from there.
The facade includes also a number of pilasters and cornices. The ground floor is decorated with walled up arches with windows and oval niches in the middle, evoking the regularity of a porch. From the side entrance of the building, you can access the barrel vaulted carriage gallery that crosses the entire section of the palace.
At the center of the gallery, along the main axis of the complex, the ground floor lobby and the balcony with the main hall on the first floor open up. To the left of the complex you can see the farmhouse and to the right the single-nave chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin of Loreto. The estate is surrounded by a walled pentagonal perimeter and includes the Italian-style garden (restored) along the central axis of the mansion, with a central fountain and box hedges at the front, while in the rear you can see the exedra on which rested the stairs for accessing the park flanked by the olive and fruit orchard reminiscent of the original. The driveway is off along the right side of the gardens and ends in a courtyard in front of the chapel. The building is owned by the Municipality.
The farmhouse functions as facility to host socio-cultural events as well as the operating headquarters of the Archaeological Superintendence of Umbria and of the Universities of Perugia and Alicante (Spain) for the excavations carried out at the villa of Pliny the Younger nearby. The villa hosts the exhibition and the storeroom of the findings from the excavations.
To visit the Mansion:
Secretariat of the Mayor Call 075 8618449, fax 075 8618444.