Tenuta Reale () was a landed property, located at the outskirts of Viareggio, Italy. It was carved out as private estate in the 1810s, when it covered few hundred hectares; over time its size diminished due to expropriations and sales of various plots. Tenuta belonged to the ducal family of House of Bourbon-Parma and its descendants, since the 1890s married to the Habsburg-Lothringens; in 1985 its remains were donated to the municipality of Viareggio. The centre of the estate was a large mansion known as Villa Borbone; it forms part of local architectural heritage, and its most recognized part is the sepulchral chapel, which hosts remnants of various historical personalities. 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. The Villa currently is open to public and hosts exhibitions, conferences, concerts etc.
Ownership and politics
Duchy of Lucca (1817–1847)
Until the early 19th century Viareggio formed part of the Republic of Lucca. Following a turbulent Napoleonic period it entered the newly created Duchy of Lucca. The throne of the duchy was assigned by the 1815 Congress of Vienna to the Spanish infanta María Luisa de Borbón, at the time widow after the late Luis of Bourbon-Parma, formerly heir-apparent to the Duchy of Parma. Upon assuming the reign in 1817, as the Duchess of Lucca she became the owner of numerous estates,exact mechanism of Maria Luisa taking ownership of the property is not clear. One source claims that she purchased the state together with Plazzo Citadella, see "Tenuta acquistate pochi anni prima", Susanna Caccia Gherardini, Il palazzo in mezzo a una selva millenaria. Villa Borbone a Viareggio: progetto di conoscenza, Firenze 2022, ISBN 9788855186988, p. 11. The author does not specify who the duchess bought the property from. Other authors claim that assuming ownership was part of a more complex arrangement, see "per realizzare le sue idee, Maria Luisa aveva fatto tornare al Demanio dello Stato tutta l’area della pineta di levante, che Elisa Baciocchi aveva messo a disposizione della comunità di Viareggio", Giovanni Scarabelli, La Reggia e la Tenuta Borbone, [in:] Argonauti service 15.06.2020, available here including a hunting ground near Viareggio where she ordered construction of what would become known as Villa Borbone. After María Luisa's death in 1824 the Duchy and the estate were inherited by her son, who ruled as Carlo Ludovico (at times referred to as Carlo I).Bartolomeo Di Monaco, Guidebook: Lucca in a Day, Lucca 2021, ISBN 9781447705208, p. 12
In the mid-1840s a complex dynastic and political arrangement was engineered. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainbleau assigned the Duchy of Parma to Napoleon's second wife Marie-Louise Habsburg-Lothringen and her descendants. The Congress of Vienna confirmed her lifetime rule, but specified that after her death the Duchy would return to the Bourbon-Parma dynasty, which since 1824 was headed by Carlo Ludovico.Edith E. Cuthell, An Imperial Victim, New York 1912, p. 11 In anticipation of his ascendance to the throne of Parma, in a secret agreement of 1844 he ceded Lucca to Grand Duchy of Tuscany.Francesco De Feo, La reversione del Ducato di Lucca del 1847, [in:] Archivio Storico Italiano 124/450 (1966), pp. 160–207 When Marie-Louise died in 1847, Carlo Ludovico formally abdicated the throne of Lucca in favor of Leopold II (Pietro Leopoldo), the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and assumed the throne of Parma as Carlo II.Marco Soresina, L’età della Restaurazione 1815-1860. Gli Stati italiani dal Congresso di Vienna al crollo, Milano 2020, ISBN 9788857568294, p. 244
Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1847–1861)
As the result of the 1847 arrangements the Duchy of Lucca ceased to exist and Viareggio became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, at the time ruled by another branch of Habsburg-Lothringens. However, Carlo II when ruling in Parma remained the owner of numerous properties beyond his own state, especially in the former Duchy of Lucca. They included some estates near Viareggio, like Villa Pianore or Villa Borbone. In 1849 Carlo II abdicated from the throne in Parma in favor of his son, who would rule as Carlo III; however, the latter did not assume the ownership of Villa Borbone. Instead, the Viareggio estates became the property of Carlo II's wife and Carlo III's mother, Maria Teresa di Savoia.
In the mid-19th century the estate was already known as Tenuta Reale.compare e.g. Il Buon Gusto 30.08.1857, available here Maria Teresa di Savoia barely lived there, as she preferred to reside in the nearby Villa Pianore, some 10 km away.Elvio Ciferri, Maria Teresa di Savouia, duchessa di Lucca, poi duchessa di Parma e Piacenza, [in:] Enciclopedia Treccani online, available here Having buried her son in Tenuta Reale in 1854, she ordered construction of a new residence in San Martino de Vignale, at the outskirts of Lucca and some 16 km away from Villa Borbone; it was later known as Villa Maria Teresa. She barely moved away from there, and by the locals she was referred to as sepolta viva, buried alive.Linda Pagnotta, L'ora più bella: fotografia e memoria del Risorgimento, Milano 2011, ISBN 9788890151316, p. 53 None of the sources consulted provides information whether any member of the family lived in Tenuta Reale in the late 1850s.
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
In 1859–1860 the duchies of Parma and Tuscany ceased to exist, soon to be incorporated into the newly created Kingdom of Italy. 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. Some sources say that in her last will she marked Tenuta Reale for her granddaughter, the oldest child of late Carlo III, princess Margherita;Francisco Melgar, Veinte años con Don Carlos. Memorias de su secretario, Madrid 1949, p. 47 she remained married to the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne, by his supporters recognized as Carlos VII. Others claim that it was Carlo Ludovico who decided upon inheritance and Margherita's assumption of the property ownership.Caccia Gherardini 2022, p. 28 Before handover the estate was subject to scrupulous inventory works.carried out by Castruccio Paoli, an engineer and architect, Caccia Gherardini 2022, p. 31 The estate remained Margherita's property until her death in 1893.
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.formally, as Tenuta would loose value if divided. Informally it was divided into 4 equal parts for all sisters, Melgar 1949, p. 49 At the time she was already married to archduke Leopold Salvator from the deposed Tuscan branch of the Habsburgs, later to become a general in the imperial Austrian army. 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.La Villa Borbone, [in:] Città di Viareggio service 07.03.2021, available here Since the early 1920s Blanca tried to recover Tenuta, in 1922 claimed by another party: it was seized by Fascist ex-combatants.La Correspondencia de España 29.06.1922, available here The official Spanish diplomacy engaged to assist her,Julián Cortés Cavanillas, Alfonso XIII y la guerra del 14, Madrid 1976, ISBN 9788485262090, p. 195 and prior to 1927press reports suggest that in 1927 Tenuta Reale was already back in Blanca's hands, see El Eco de Gerona 01.08.1927, available here she managed to reclaim most of the estate, which she held also during the period of Italian Social Republic (1943–1944).
Italian Republic (1946 onwards)
Blanca de Borbón remained the owner of the property until her death in 1949. None of the sources consulted clarifies who formally owned Tenuta Reale afterwards, though it certainly remained in family hands. The estate was probably either inherited by one of her older daughters or became co-owned by two or more of her children. In the early 1950s the one most associated with the estate was Immaculata, in the early 1980s it was rather her sister Margherita, who died as the last of the sisters (except Assunta, who lived in Texas) in 1986.the maternal aunt of the sisters, Alicia Habsburg y Borbón, was also related to the estate. 1964 she issued from Viareggio a statement, which declared Alfonso Borbón Dampierre the head of the Spanish Borbón family, José María Zavala, Bastardos y Borbones, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788401347672, p. 266 Shortly before her death, when she was 91, Margherita assisted by her nephew Dominic“l’acquisto della villa Borbone e degli edifici circostanti da Margherita Asburgo Lorena e Dominique Asburgo Lorena”, Cesare Bonifazi, Villa Borbone scuola? Serve l’ok del comitato, [in:] Il Tirreno 06.03.2021, available here sold the estate (except the sepulchral chapel and some other premises)except “appartamento di sei vani, sito al primo piano della villa, sopra il garage, ed unito alla cappella da scala interna”, Riccardo Pagliarini, La villa Borbone, Viareggio 1986, pp. 173-176 to Benvenuto Barsanti, a railway engineer who made a fortune in Venezuela.
Barsanti did not live in Tenuta Reale and in 1985, shortly after having acquired it, he donated the property to the municipality of Viareggio. Comune di Viareggio remains the owner of the estate until today, though il sindaco and the local administration can not decide upon fate of the property at will. According to the act of donation, a committee should be maintained to provide a binding opinion on every major administrative decision related to Tenuta; the committee should consist of the mayor, dean of the architecture faculty at the University of Florence, a superintendent, a representative of the Barsanti family, and a member of the municipal council.Bonifazi 2021 In 2005 Comune acquired also the sepulchral chapel.La Villa Borbone, [in:] Città di Viareggio service 07.03.2021, available here
Life at Tenuta Reale
Secondary residence
Upon assuming the throne of Lucca in 1817 the 35-year-old María Luisa and her 2 children, Carlo Ludovico (18) and Maria Luisa (15), shuttled between the ducal palace in Lucca and Viareggio, where she acquired so-called Palazzo Cittadella. She had "Lucca nella mente, Viareggio nel cuore"Scarabelli 2020 and was not short of energy. Charmed by the beauty of the hunting estate between Viareggio, the sea and the Massaciuccoli lake, in 1821 she contracted a young architect, Lorenzo Nottolini, to design casino per la caccia, a hunting lodge, to be connected with Palazzo Cittadella by a 5-km-long viale alberato and together with Palazzo to form a unique, huge ducal residential complex.Luca del Bigallo, Stefania Landi, Silvia Pieruccetti, L’evoluzione degli insediamenti nel territorio versiliese, [in:] Terra di Viareggio service, available here It is not clear at what stage the construction works were when María Luisa died in 1824, at the age of 42; as she was infanta of Spain, she was buried in El Escorial.