In 1364, the "palace" of Petraia belonged to the Brunelleschi family until in 1422 Palla Strozzi bought it and expanded it by buying the surrounding land.

Then from 1588, there was a decade of extensive excavation works which transformed the "stony" nature of the place (hence the name in Petraia, that is full of stones) into dramatic sequence of terraces dominated by the massive main building.

It is traditionally attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, even though the only documented certainty is the presence on site of Raphael Pagni.

The Villa remained in the ownership of the Medici family until their extinction, when it passed to the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine.

From 1860 the estate came into the ownership of the House of Savoy, becoming one of Victor Emmanuel II's favourite residences.