Villa Vitali in Fermo is a dwelling belonged to Vitali Counts.
Villa Vitali in Fermo is a dwelling that belonged to Vitali Counts, restored in 1854. Built in a place where once a sacred temple stood, count Barnaba Vitali realised there a small chapel dedicated to Saint Francis of Paola, that for many years was a reference for the surrounding houses. The Gardens of Villa Vitali have been housing since 2008 an open-air theatre and a naturalistic walk with flowers and plants coming from different places all over the world.
Villa Vitali is located along the main street that leads from the sea to the city of Fermo, the address is Viale Trento, 29.
At the beginning of the XIX century, in the area where the Villa stands, there were also the Minimi Friars of Saint Francis of Paola, as reported by an inscription in a chapel that was later decorated by painter Giuseppe Felici di Grotte di Castro, between 1907 and 1908.
Already in 1815 in the pontifical real estate there’s a document testifying the presence of a farmhouse that twelve years later was converted to the main building of the future villa and that belonged to four members of Vitali family: Francesco, Barnaba, Luigi and Giuseppe.
In 1854 the Villa was rebuilt on a project by Architect Gaetano Manfredi, in classic style and with essential lines, right near the place where the Church of St. Francis of Paola, destroyed around year 1812, stood.
Villa Vitali’s map is rectangular, “elongated in East-West direction, windows located on the northern façade divided by vertical half pilasters that end with fake capitals at the feet of a horizontal trabeation that works as counterbalance for a high base that goes all around the building’s length, underlining the elongated position. The front of the street distinguishes itself from the southern façade thanks to the ashlar on the ground floor”. At the beginning of the XX century on the façade facing South two colonnades were added, surrounding a courtyard with four flowerbeds, that opened towards the underlying garden.
The dwelling was purchased by Fermo municipality in 1977.
The Gardens of the Villa are remarkable, they were realised in 1860, probably on a project by Manfredi and they have within still today a great amount of interesting plant species. The portico in neo-gothic style made of bricks dates back to 1860; it contains also a tub and a statue representing the Madonna with the Child. It was an arbor where to walk during the warm season.
The most meaningful restoration of this building dates back to 1885 commissioned by Francesco Vitali, the Villa’s new heir, that led to important changes: two wings were added to the building, a storehouse on the left side of the villa, a small building in the Galoppaio, of whom there are testaments already from 1876, the gatekeeper’s house and an aristocratic chapel dedicated to St. Francis of Paola.
The Villa appeared to be, also thanks to documented sources dating back to the beginning of the XX century, seat of many artistic collection of great value.
The elliptical lawn in front of the villa was a wonderful area enriched by twenty-four busts of terracotta, representing Greek and Roman characters.
During the last decade of the XX century, Fermo Municipality managed to give back this area to the community converting it into an open-air arena that hosts the theatrical and musical season during summer with the Villa InVita Fermo Festival. This fest returned to the city an important theatrical space, destined to strengthen more the prestigious cultural and musical tradition of Fermo in the local landscape.
The Festival was born in 2016 and it brought in Fermo many world renowned artists like Fiorella Mannoia, Francesco Gabbani, Giovanni Allevi, Elio, Panariello, Antonella Ruggero, Tullio De Piscopo, Arisa, Antonella Ruggero, Giovanni Allevi, Peppe Servillo, Nicola Piovani, Ascanio Celestini; they performed on Villa Vitali’s stage during the Festival’s editions.
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