Tenuta Reale (Viareggio)
The past of Tenuta Reale is at the crossroads of national histories of Italy, Spain and Austria; its other peculiarity is that it is related almost exclusively to female owners and was shaped by numerous women.
However, political turmoil did not translate into total expropriation of fallen dynasties; Villa Borbone remained owned by Maria Teresa until her death in 1879, though she lived mostly in San Martino de Vignale.
In her last will the late princess Margherita informally divided Tenuta Reale between her 4 daughters, but legally she transferred ownership to the oldest one, Blanca de Borbón y Borbón-Parma.
When Italy declared war on Austro-Hungary in 1915 as co-property of the high enemy military the estate was taken over by Italian state and incorporated into the nearby proofing ground.
[17] Shortly before her death, when she was 91, Margherita assisted by her nephew Dominic[18] sold the estate (except the sepulchral chapel and some other premises)[19] to Benvenuto Barsanti, a railway engineer who made a fortune in Venezuela.
In the 1880s the place enjoyed its climax, enlivened by the barely mid-aged lady-owner and 4 girls gradually entering the adolescent period; they were served by 36 Italian, Spanish and Austrian servants.
Also in 1897 the 23-year-old Beatrix married Fabrizio Massimo (Prince of Roviano) and in 1898 in Villa Borbone she gave birth to their daughter Margherita, but the marriage also proved an unfortunate one.
[34] At the time the couple engaged in lawsuit against the Italian navy; they claimed damages caused by artillery, which operated at the proofing ground, existing south of Viareggio since the 1860s and neighboring Tenuta Reale.
[36] The fate of Tenuta Reale in the early 1920s is not clear, except isolated news about Fascist ex-combatant organisations periodically operating at the premises,[37] continuing lawsuit and efforts of the Spanish diplomacy to get the property restored to Blanca de Borbón,[38] who at the time lived mostly in Barcelona.
In the early 1930s the place, supervised by Alicia (who lived in del Prete property in Viareggio), was at times visited by groups of Carlists paying homage to their defunct king.
She lived in Tenuta together with her oldest solitaire daughter Dolores (46), her son Karl Pius (29) and his wife Christa Satzger, who in 1941 in Villa Borbone gave birth to Blanca's granddaughter, Alejandra.
Following the fall of Mussolini few months later the estate was first in military "protective custody", and then occupied by unspecified uniformed formations of RSI, which was welcome by the family as measure against increasingly widespread looting.
[49] Since the early 21st century the residence was merged into a larger entity, named Parco Naturale Migliarino - San Rossore – Massaciuccoli; its management is located in Villa Borbone.
[50] It accommodates exhibitions, conferences, concerts, theatrical spectacles and less ambitious shows, like Fiesta Pepperoncino or Festival della Magia; premises might be also rented on commercial basis for closed private events, like weddings.
[53] When contracted by Maria Luisa in the late 1810s, Nottolini designed a large landscaping project which covered the pine forest area known as Pineta di Levante, stretching for some 4 km along the sea coast from Viareggio to the border between the duchies of Lucca and Tuscany.
Since the mid-1840s 17 farmsteads were lined up along the Tenuta, divided into 28 2.5-hectare plots; they were intended for farmers working the vineyards;[58] because the residence was re-calibrated as centre of the agricultural economy, outbuildings were constructed immediately north of the villa.
At the turn of the 1840s and 1850s[59] a small church of San Carlo Borromeo, designed perhaps by Nottolini but after his death completed by Giuseppe Pardini, was built adjacent to the western end of the northern building.
Some modifications affected the limehouse and the side wings; outbuildings were enlarged to host a canteen and flats for servants and workers, and dilapidated steadfarms were replaced with newer huts.
[65] Typical Tuscan features, be it general composition of the elevation or details like Doric order cornice and cyma recta/cyma reversa mouldings, remain rather on the exterior.
[66] There is little left of the original interior decorum of the residence, mentioned e.g. in the 1879 inventory (French wallpapers, ceilings of reeds with lime, frescos, stucco decorations), though Italian art-specialists did their best to restore tiled floors, window frameworks or marble fireplaces.
Numerous paintings and few busts depict former owners of the residence or other members of the Borbón, Bourbon-Parma and Habsburg-Lothringen families, including dukes of Parma and Carlist claimants to the Spanish throne.
Numerous cabinets contain tableware, decorations, private papers, photographs and other objects related to the Borbón-Parma family, though not necessarily to its members living in Villa Borbone.
The set of lines and materials also includes neo-fourteenth-century references evident in the monument to Carlo Ludovico, with the mixed-line conclusion containing the pointed arch lunette and the paneling of the tripartite back wall with trefoil motifs.
Over time the area in vicinity of the residence was crossed by a system of circular and perpendicular paths; some of it was converted to fruit tree orchards and vegetable gardens with hedges, while some was turned to park.
[72] Under the ownership of princess Margherita the green area was divided into rectangles; parks and gardens were intended solely for cultivation of flowers and ornamental plants, one part laid out in English style and another in Italian one,[73] with fountains, small canals, bridges and sculptures.
[74] Today the entire estate, currently named Tenuta di Borbone e Macchia Lucchese, forms part of Migliarino / San Rossore / Massaciuccoli natural park.
In 1930 the Italian painter, novelist and Anarchist activist Lorenzo Viani published in Milan a novel Il figlio del pastore; it was a largely an autobiographical account from his youth, spent in Viareggio.
Since in the late 19th century Viani's father was employed as domestico di fiducia at the estate and lived on the premises with his family, Lorenzo as a child used to meet princess Margherita, Carlos VII and their children.
The novel – or recollections, depending upon how the work is categorized – provides a somewhat sympathetic picture of Villa Borbone inhabitants; presented as part of the disappearing old world, they are portrayed with a grade of melancholy.
The book, formatted as a semi-narrative story, focuses on the offspring of Blanca de Borbón, and especially on Franz Josef; all members of the family are depicted in highly affectionate terms.
