This volume recounts the centuries-long history of Villa Balbiano, a magnificent architectural masterpiece meticulously restored by Jacques Garcia.

From its prominent position on Lake Como, Villa Balbiano radiates a majestic charm emblematic of the most splendid chapter in the history of great villas in the idyllic Italian region. Each successive owner brought new splendor to the villa through additions, new frescoes and statues, and increasingly extensive and sumptuous gardens. The villa’s history reached an acme at the end of the eighteenth century, when the enlightened Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini, as master of the house, transformed Villa Balbiano into a crucible of philosophy and art, framed within the villa’s archetypical Roman lines.

Today, esteemed interior architect Jacques Garcia has undertaken painstaking restoration work that combines a stunning array of precious materials and a world-class collection of paintings and antique furnishings set against the backdrop of the original design that had been obscured over the centuries. The glorious new restoration inaugurates a new season in the life of the villa in one of the world’s most glamorous locations.

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Nestled in the shadow of the Alps in Italy’s Lakes District, Villa Balbiano has always represented an absolute ideal of fine living.

This romantic sixteenth-century architectural masterpiece is located on Lake Como, one of the world’s most glamorous locations and a place of culture and delight for more than two thousand years. After an exceptional restoration project led by the internationally renowned decorator Jacques Garcia, Villa Balbiano and its gardens are more vibrant than ever.

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Пролистать книгу Villa Balbiano: Italian Opulence on Lake Como

In southeast Sicily, near the town of Noto, Villa Elena — a former monastery restored by Jacques Garcia — is a tranquil oasis among fragrant orchards. Reflecting the interior designer’s passion for ancient civilizations, the domain blends classical, Arabian, and Norman influences with elements borrowed from the Renaissance and the baroque, mirroring Sicilian history. With views stretching to the sea and to Syracuse, the villa is surrounded by shady terraces and lush gardens. This home — evocative of Lampedusa’s The Leopard — has been restored to its former glory through magnificent salons decked with marble, stucco work, majolica tiles, silk, and velvet, revealed here for the first time. Bruno Ehrs’s photographs, taken throughout each season of the year, masterfully capture the decadent splendor and aristocratic lifestyle of this particularly sumptuous locale in Sicily.

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Celebrated interior designer Jacques Garcia invites readers for the first time inside his private residence in Sicily. The former monastery, rebuilt in Noto's characteristic golden limestone, boasts spectacular salons that have been restored with a profusion of noble materials and techniques: colored marbles, flamboyant stucco work, majolica tiles, damask silks, and velvets. Time stops in the elegant music room decorated with embroidered silks and rococo-style mirrors that reflect the decor to infinity; the gilded dining room is hung with silk damask wall coverings, an eighteenth-century Murano chandelier, and furnished with Chantilly porcelain and antique Italian rococo chairs. The grand marble salon features baroque paintings and a stunning collection of sculpture and Sicilian furniture.

The exquisite villa — surrounded by shaded terraces planted with towering cacti, succulents, and colorful birds of paradise — attests to Garcia's love of ancient civilizations, and his masterful blending of Arab, Norman, Renaissance, and Baroque influences that converge in Sicily's colorful history. The domain, dotted with ancient sculptures and reflecting pools, is graced with splendid panoramic views revealing the sea near Syracuse, a distant folly, a restored villa nestled in an ancient olive grove, and the decaying grandeur of a classical temple reconstructed with ancient fragments.

Famous not only for his passion for antiquities but also for his much-lauded and internationally famous interior design work, Jacques Garcia purchased the imposing Château du Champ de Bataille twenty years ago in a state of virtual ruin and lovingly restored it to its former splendour. The chateau is now a treasure house of seventeenth and eighteenth-century architecture, furniture, and garden design, to which Garcia brought his considerable expertise gained from numerous restoration projects including rooms at Versailles and the Louvre. Every detail from the library with its collection of priceless books to the grand dining room with its rare collection of Sèvres porcelain to the hall of taxidermy has been carefully studied and interpreted through the prism of Jacques Garcia's extraordinary eye and inimitable style. This superbly illustrated volume documents the meticulous research and epic restoration undertaken by Jacques Garcia.

Informed by history and imbued with the exquisite beauty of the château and its priceless collection of paintings, sculptures, porcelain, silver, and furniture, Garcia's masterpiece will be a revelation to specialists on French art and a delight and inspiration to anyone interested in interior decoration and restoration.

A thirty-year career has made Jacques Garcia a worldwide name in interior design in the French tradition. In Paris, chic crowds flock to his celebrated Hétel Costes and Ladurée tearoom, and to his many fin-de-siécle brasseries. Garcia's designs also grace the interiors of the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée de la Vie Romantique-and his most recent tour de force is the restoration of Paris' Hétel Mansart. Garcia's most ambitious project to date, the refurbishment of the Chéteau du Champ de Bataille in Normandy, attracts visitors from across the globe and has become a monument to his art and celebrity.

This new edition of the 1999 book is a continuing tribute to the restoration of the chéteau and to its magnificent gardens, seen here for the first time. Sumptuously illustrated and updated to include Garcia's latest creations, this new edition provides the reader with a privileged view of true French style.