Serbian Princess Elizabeth Karadjordjevic, a citizen of the world who was educated in Kenya, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Paris, explains how the time she spent in Florence was one of the most vivacious chapters in the incredible story of her life.
Your father, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893-1976), was the only heir of the Villa Demidoff of Pratolino, where he hung out with the likes of Bernard Berenson and John Pope Hennessy. How did that time in Florence shape the life of the young prince?
My father, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, inherited the Pratolino property in 1955, from his Aunt Moina, born Demidoff and sister of his mother, Aurora, who was married to Prince Arsene of Yugoslavia, brother of King Peter I of Yugoslavia. The property is surrounded by a wall and is the size of Monaco, sealed off with a vast gate. The house, the paggeria, was the staff building and was part of the Medici Villa complex built by Francesco di Medici for his love and future wife, Bianca Capello. When the Habsburgs took over Tuscany, they destroyed the main building with cannons. My father, who spent much of his youth with his aunt in the paggeria, would find shattered glass from the chandeliers lying in the grass…There is a lovely little grotto near the house where it is cool in summer and I suspect ice could have been kept there for cooling sherbets. The house was filled with treasures, so as my father loved beautiful works of art, these visits inspired him to start collecting. Eventually, he created the Prince Paul Museum of Modern Art in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. My father was very happy living there and enjoyed visits from friends, family and local intellectuals, such as Harold Acton and Bernard Berenson.
What are your memories from the time in Pratolino?
In the house there were Russian paintings and furniture, a Titian, French Boulle furniture and French paintings, a Vigée Le Brun portrait, treasures from Elba Island where Napoleon had been exiled, miniatures, porcelain, etc. The whole place was sold in 1969 at Sotheby’s as the upkeep was too large to maintain. The connection with Napoleon was because Anatole Demidoff, a great uncle of my father’s, had married Napoleon’s niece, Mathilde. He was a very enthusiastic collector and many of his paintings are now in the Wallace Collection in London.
The park, which has been owned by the Metropolitan City of Florence since 1981, is home to the magnificent Appennino, a 11-meter-high personification of the Apennine Mountains as an elderly man crouched on the shore of a lake. It is one of the most powerful creations of the Flemish-born Giambologna, made in stone and plaster in the 1580s. Apart from interacting beautifully with the surroundings each season (in the winter the icicles would cover his body, the pipes would “sweat” in the summer), the statue was the water source for the Pratolino, its fountains and secret water features. Inside the giant are three stories of rooms, including the one in its head, where Francesco I would supposedly spend hours fishing, with the line going through one of the Appennino’s eyes. I loved your account of climbing on the Colossus and exploring the inner rooms…
There is a stairway behind the statue and one could climb up into the head into a small space. The pond in front of the Colossus is now smothered in water lilies, but in 1955 only a third was covered. This property is an oasis and for years this treasure was relatively unknown to the public as the park was not open for visitors. Immobiliare Italiano bought the property in 1969, but then it was sold again. The paggeria was stripped of all the bathrooms and strange plastic tubes were put into the bottom of one of the fountain beds, supposedly artwork. I visited the property about 12 years ago with a cousin and we were dismayed by the condition of the house and the park. Luckily, the statue is still proudly guarding the water lilies.
What other special memories connect you to Florence and what is your favorite place to return to in Tuscany?
I had some wonderful friends in Florence, the Guicciardinis and the Pucinellis, and stayed with them in Castiglione della Pescaia in a wonderful pistachio green house, near the beach.
Florence has always held a certain allure for royalty. In Royals in Florence, a collection of essays by writer and researcher Deirdre Pirro, we meet the regal figures who have resided or vacationed in the Renaissance city and its hills from the eighteenth century onwards.
