Villa Templa Mare: Villa Barluzzi from 1926

Villa Barluzzi became the residence of the family of Giulio Barluzzi and Maria Anderson from 1926 and the restoration work on the ruins was completed in 1934. He transformed the crumbling remains of the Church of Sant’ Andrea del Pendolo into the sumptuous private summer residence of his family and for three generations the villa was owned by the Barluzzi heirs.

In a document dated 1929 Giulio Barluzzi states: “My desire is to build a refuge in which to enjoy the enchanting landscape” and the epithet “Villa Templa Mare” recalls its contemplative style designed for meditation.

In his restoration work simplicity and the use of noble forms predominate. Indeed his tireless passion for religious architecture can clearly be seen in the villa where he put his taste for the Neo-Gothic into practice..

Visitors entered the villa through a large door with a pointed arch  that leads to a wide hallway with a remarkable vaulted ceiling. It was decorated with just two trunks and two large suzanis from central Asia. Barluzzi acquired most of the suzanis on epic journeys to Samarcanda. The floral embroidery work hunging right , used to cover a window, came from India.

Another good example of Barluzzi’s style of construction is the main lounge, which has unusually high ceilings and is divided into three sections by two rows of columns that lend it a majestic and romantic charm. Verticality is emphasised here, even the suzanis that hung on the walls were upright, creating the sensation that everything is sweeping skywards. The narrow staircase leading to the upeer floors is quite the opposite of monumental. Looped ropes fastened to eyes on the banisters served as a charmingly rudimentary safety feature.

The furniture is sober, eager for light, the architect made lots of different-sized openings, lending a certain rhythm to the building’s entirely white walls. Some doors were old, saved from demolition, while others were made to measure by excellent local craftsmen. This Orientalist forms reflect an Arabis-Sicialian influence characteristic of the Amalfi Coast.

A narrow staircase leads to the upper floors and to the bedrooms, all of them white cubes with simply decorated vaulted ceilings. The colors were predominantly neutral so as not to compete the with essential beauty of the volumes. The only thing that stood out was the originality of the vibrant floor, laid with turquoise ceramic tiles from Vietri sul Mare. Those tiles were referred to as pennellato, a technique of hand-painting with large brushes that spread the colour evenly and they had replaced all the original floors at the end of the 1940s. Giulio Barluzzi  took up this major innovation at the end of his life, as though he were beginning to express himself though colours, but they in no way divert from the feeling of sophisticated spiritual calm.

Find out more in:

July 2015 Issue of The World of Interiors

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