For two days only, Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, June 15, the French Academy in Rome presents a unique experience: the exceptional opening of the restored spaces of Villa Medici, as part of the major multi-year project Restituire l’incanto a Villa Medici (Restoring Enchantment to Villa Medici). A rare opportunity to journey through the centuries and the contemporary, admiring completely reinvented salons, guest rooms, and historic gardens.
2025: A New Chapter of Creativity and Refinement
The year 2025 marks the culmination of a refurbishment campaign initiated in 2022. Six new guest rooms, re-envisioned by international teams of architects, designers, and artisans, will be unveiled. Each room is a microcosm, a sophisticated dialogue between history and contemporary creation, decorative plasters and carved wood, natural light and harmonized volumes.
Among the most evocative projects are the Studiolo by Sébastien Kieffer and Léa Padovani, noted for its intimate and textural quality; Il cielo in una stanza (The Sky in a Room) by Zanellato/Bortotto with Incalmi, a composition of glass and metal; and Camera Fantasia (Fantasy Room) by the GGSV studio, a sensory experience combining papier-mâché and decorative painting.
These unique spaces, once reserved for the painters of the Académie, now provide breathtaking views over Rome and an immersion in a cultural luxury that converses with time.
The Lemon Garden: A Poetic Landscape
Another significant 2025 development is the restoration of the Lemon Garden (Giardino dei Limoni), realized through the vision of landscape architect Bas Smets and architect of historic monuments Pierre-Antoine Gatier. In this secluded space, amidst citrus plants and pergolas of Lunario lemon trees, a new landscape emerges, integrating Medicean history, botanical research, and contemporary design.
The garden also features the new Cosimo de’ Medici outdoor furniture collection, designed by the duo Muller Van Severen and produced by Tectona. The collection is designed in harmony with the site’s geometry and features a color palette that enhances the environment.
The Parterre Garden: Art, Memory, and Poetry
In front of the Villa’s loggia, the redesigned parterre now hosts 20 lemon trees in artist-designed planters. Created by Natsko Uchino, the planters are made of molded terracotta decorated with fragments of Roman artifacts. Their peperino stone bases, sculpted by Daniele De Tomassi, bear engraved words that form an original poem by Laura Vazquez, winner of the 2023 Goncourt Prize for Poetry. The result is a sublime fusion of nature, art, and literature.
An Immersive Journey Through the 2022 and 2023 Transformations
The journey through the Villa’s evolution also extends to transformations from 2022 and 2023:the six reception halls, restored in 2022 under the artistic direction of Kim Jones and Silvia Venturini Fendi, where historical pieces coexist with contemporary creations by designers such as Chiara Andreatti and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. Also accessible are the six historic rooms restored in 2023 by India Mahdavi, who transformed the former cardinal apartments into vibrant, colorful spaces featuring geometric patterns and furnishings from the Mobilier National.
The event presents a comprehensive look at how Villa Medici successfully merges heritage with innovation. The program narrates 500 years of evolving art, craftsmanship, and thought, positioning the institution as a contemporary laboratory that honors and builds upon its past.