Sting’s Tuscan Retreat: history, secrets and restoration

The villa — the palace — seems to have long since become Sting’s favorite residence. Nestled in the green hills of Chianti, it hides its beauty behind cypresses, preserving a quiet and stately elegance. It is the tranquillity of the Tuscan countryside that the English rock star has said best suits his contemplative spirit, where inspiration comes after long walks. “In the woods I found the poem in Tuscany; after all, I am not the first Englishman to fall in love with this countryside,” the singer remarked.

But what are the secrets of his house and the history that surrounds it? Tracing the palace’s story over the centuries requires examining a number of documents, many of which are incomplete for the first decades of the century. Records of tributes from different areas of Florence appear in the registers of the Florentine Republic dated 1530. These volumes, called the “Republican Tithes,” are divided into canons. Looking at the entry for Villa Sant’Andrea in Campiglia, we can identify the farms that belonged to the estate since its origins, although the existence of the palace itself is not clearly documented until later.

Only in the second half of the eighteenth century do we find clear evidence of the property. The Grand Ducal Tithes record the first known owner, Bernard Francis Hammers. Some documents describe the estate as “a villa in a residence consisting of a main palace and adjoining properties,” suggesting that the main house originally formed a single unit with the dwellings of agricultural workers. Over time the house underwent changes and the original layout was modified.

The story becomes more interesting in 1706, when Horace Pancrazi, Bishop of Fiesole, granted Bernardo Hammers permission to build a chapel attached to the villa’s perimeter. It is curious to read Bernard Hammers’s will of 1752, in which he ordered that every year, on the second week of October, a Mass be celebrated in the chapel of his villa, followed by an outdoor banquet in honor of Saint Peter of Alcantara. He also required a payment of 30 scudi to the Capuchin friars of Figline if the celebration were interrupted for any reason. Until a few years ago, this feast was still observed with a morning Mass at the church of Sant’Andrea in Campiglia and with the friars of Figline, followed by a lunch offered by the villa’s owners. The saint’s relics are now preserved in the monastery of Barbolana in the province of Arezzo.

The liturgical feast of Saint Peter of Alcantara was set for October 19, but since 1969, following Pope Paul VI’s reform of the calendar of saints, his cult was limited, which likely explains the interruption of the ceremony at the villa. The palace then passed through various transactions until 1819, when it returned to the family and was sold to Velvet Hammer for 4,650 Zati shields. Before that sale, the Martelli family had commissioned several paintings depicting the villa and its lands.

It is interesting to examine the changes successive owners made to the house, not only to suit personal tastes but also to improve the villa’s functionality. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the chapel was enlarged on the orders of Bishop Donato Zati Woven, and new structures were added for practical uses: storage for grain, wine production and storage, an oil mill, and other facilities. Over time the family was forced to sell much of its property.

Today, Gordon Matthew Sumner, known as Sting, has restored the villa and its lands to their former splendour, enhancing the structure and form while preserving the charm of the Tuscan countryside that he loves.

Antonio Degl’Innocenti