The Patrick O’Donnell House is the largest example of Italianate architecture in Charleston, South Carolina. It was built for Patrick O’Donnell (1806-1882), perhaps in 1856 or 1857. Other research has suggested a con6struction date of 1865. Local lore has it that the three-and-a-half-story house was built for his would-be bride who later refused to marry him, giving rise to the house’s popular name, “O’Donnell’s Folly.” Between 1907 and 1937, it was home to Josephine Pinckney; both the Charleston Poetry Society and the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals were formed at the house during her ownership.
It is a classic example of a side hall plan; the house has large, adjacent rooms on the south side with a piazza and a stair hall that runs along the north side of the house.
In 1987, the house was for sale and the Preservation Society of Charlestonconsidered purchasing it. The Society was interested in using the house as a museum house and as its headquarters, and the neighborhood initially supported the plans. Later, the neighborhood changed its position because of worries about parking, and the membership of the Society was split on the proposal. In April 1987, The Society dropped its plans.
The house sold in June 2007 to James Pallotta, a part owner of the Boston Celtics. At the time, the seven-bedroom, 9,700 square foot house’s price was the highest ever paid in Charleston for a house. It retained that distinction until the sale of 37 Meeting St. in May 2009.
Photos: http://www.katieconsiders.com and “Palazzo Scala Della Gherardesca – Four Seasons Hotel Firenze – The revival of a historical home ”
Text: based on “Palazzo Scala Della Gherardesca – Four Seasons Hotel Firenze – The revival of a historical home “
The Palazzo Della Gherardesca has a remarkable history
and magnificent restoration of one of the last important places in Florentine
history. This Palazzo from the times of Lorenzo il Magnifico has been one of
the mainstays of the city’s cultural, artistic and entrepreneurial activity. A
unique place which by virtue of its location, a little removed from the main
stage of the city’s bustling centre and protected by a vast monumental park,
has succeeded in preserving over the centuries, notwithstanding its beauty and splendor,
an “aura” of reserve and inaccessibility that has inspired almost
legendary stories about its owners’ lifestyles.
The building where the Florentine Four Seasons now
stands dates back to 1472, and its existence we owe to Bartolomeo Scala, the
discreet, unassuming “puppeteer” of the Medici court, a man capable
of accumulating riches, though never so excessively as to arouse any envy or
bitterness.
The architects Pier Yves Rochon (the interiors), Andrea Noferi (the architectural project) and Giorgio Galletti (the park) established an intense and constructive dialogue in restoring to the palace and its garden, with the best in modern quality and functionality, the glory and opulence of the past.
All renovation work was carried out under the
attentive supervision of the Florentine Soprintendenza (Monuments and Fine Arts
Service), and allowed the building to “change its skin” without
losing its patrimony of frescoes, stuccoes, visual effects, plays of light and
depth that are evidence of its rich past.
Over the centuries, the building has changed ownership
various times passing from the noble Della Gherardesca family to the Pasha of
Egypt, and more recent times from the Southern Railways Company to the Orlando
family, which subsequently sold it to the Fingen group of the brothers Marcello
and Corrado Fratini.
In southern Tuscany, a family of British bohemians has created an elegantly undone cultural refuge that pays homage to the everyday life of ancient Italy.
No. 1 rule for castle living: Recycle. Rusty nails and wood planks, for example, were used to make doors and tables. Second rule: Use what is nearby. This means natural pigments such as sienna and oxide-rich whitewash, as well as local building materials, including stone and cotto tiles.
A look inside the medieval Castello di Potentino, a dilapidated fortress in the Italian countryside revitalized by Charlotte Horton and her family. Here, family portraits hang in the entry hall.In Horton’s boudoir, a stuffed wild animal collection perched atop an armoire next to her vanity.In the dining room, the ceiling is painted with a mural of stars and constellations by the artist Karen Bergman and the walls hung with sets of Moroccan, Chinese and Japanese plates.In the Etruscan room, an 18th-century silk baldachin found in Lucca, Italy. Charlotte Horton painted the room with natural earth oxide pigments in 2003.In Horton’s study, an Oskar Kokoschka poster and a Giovanni Battista Piranesi print hang over a pair of Gujarati wooden leopards on her desk.In one of the guest bathrooms, a handcrafted shower surround made by a local blacksmith and a kimono stand by Nigel Coates.
Photos and text: “Royal Palaces of India”, Tarun Chopra
The City Palace, has been the residence of the Jaipur royal family since the 18h century. It is a complex, interspersed with courtyards and beautifully painted doorways and arches, which reflects the opulence and the political power of the Jaipur rulers. It was romantically decorated and luxuriously built with white Makrana marble and the typical eggshell plaster was used to finish its limestone walls.
Paintings executed in subtle hues of pink, blue, and beige mineral colours dominate the decoration of the palace. Shining brass and ivory doors and occasional semi-precious stone inlay work, together with solid silver furniture and hand-knotted Mughal design carpets with vegetable dyes decorate the living quarters. The architectural style is an amalgamation of Mughal and Hindu influences, though the latter dominates most of the decorative elements.
Today, one enters the City Palace from the eastern gate close to the Observatory. The entrance courtyard opens into Mubarak Mahal, which has now been turned into a textile museum. The building has a distinct style of architecture known as Indo-Saracenic. It was designed by the British architect Samuel Swinton Jacob using Indian influences. To the north of Mubarak Mahal lies the official entrance to the palace, which is a giant brass door that is guarded by two marble elephants. Originally, it housed the Naubat Khana, a place where drums were sounded each time the king left or returned to the palace, to signal women to shower the Maharaja with rose petals from the windows above the entrance.
After the main entrance comes the Diwan-i-Khas or the Hall of Public Audience, where courtiers used to gather to discuss court matters, deliver firmans (court orders), and administer justice. The major attraction of the Diwan-i-Khas is the two huge silver vessels, each weighing three hundred and fifty kilograms.
To the west of Diwan-i-Khas is a gateway called the Riddhi Siddhi Pol that leads to the inner courtyard with four richly decorated doors. The courtyard, in turn provides access to the Chandra Mahal, or the Moon Palace, which is the official residence of the royal family of Jaipur. It has a rectangular ground floor with a large veranda that is decorated with life-size portraits of the ex rulers of the city. The various floors of the Chandra Mahal have been named as Sukh Niwas (Abode of Comforts), Rang Mandir (Pleasure Palace), Shobha Niwas (House of Décor), Chavvi Niwas (Mirror Palace), and Mukut Niwas (Abode of Crown).
Opposite to Chandra Mahal is Badal Mahal with its square water tank called Talkatora. Floored with marble and glazed with tiles, is the romantic pool called Pritam Niwas, or Abode of the Beloved. The City Palace was partly converted into a museum in 1959. It houses many royal treasures: crystal chandeliers, pashmina rugs illustrated manuscripts, and jewelled weapons, which are beautifully displayed in various sections of the palace.
Sukh Niwas, the private sitting room of the Jaipur Royals, is lavishly decorated with choicest decorative pieces of 18th and 19th century.The veranda overlooking the Mughal garden at the rear of Chandra mahal is painted in floral pattern and life size portraits of the Jaipur kings decoratrate its walls.Portrait of a Jaipur Maharaja.Sikh Niwas has crystal dining table of which only two exist in the worid. These were specially commissioned by the Maharaja for his palace with the French company Lalique.The private living room of the Jaipur royal family is decorated with Mughal miniatures while silver artefacts and chairs sit on antique Mughal carpet. Pritam Niwas Chowk, built during the reign of Sawai Pratop Singh is an interior courtyard of the City Palace which has four beautiful doorways representing the four seasons. Peacock Gate (with motifs of peacocks on the doorway) represents autumn and is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Shri Niwas is located on the sixth floor of Chandar Mahal. It is a huge hall surrounded by rows of fluted marble columns. It must have been a pleasure pavilion for evening indulgences. A few oil lamps are enough to fire up the entire ceiling.
The Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales resides in the former palace of Emperor Charles V and Empress Isabel of Portugal. Their daughter, Joanna of Austria, founded this convent of nuns of the Poor Clare order in 1559. Throughout the remainder of the 16th century and into the 17th century, the convent attracted young widowed or spinster noblewomen. Each woman brought with her a dowry. The riches quickly piled up, and the convent became one of the richest convents in all of Europe. Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spain’s finest Renaissance composer, worked at the convent from 1587 to the end of his life in 1611.
The demographics of the convent slowly changed over time, and by the 20th century, all of the sisters were in poverty. The convent maintained the riches of its past, but it was forbidden to auction any of the items off or spend any of the money it received from the dowries. The state intervened when it saw that the sisters were poor, and the pope granted a special dispensation to open the convent as a museum in 1960.
Main staircase.Main staircase.Main staircase.Main staircase ceiling.Entrance hall.Funerary monument in honor to Juana de Austria, in the church of the Descalzas Reales. The figure of the founder of the monastery, made of white marble white by Pompeo LeoniEι archangel Raphael by Bartolomé Roman in the first third of the sixteenth century, in entrance hall.The triumph of the Eucharist over ignorance and blindness, in the Tapestries Chamber.Isabel de Austria, Queen of France, by Moorish van der Straeten, known as Jorge de la Rúa (1573).Don Juan de Austria by Alonso Sánchez Coello (1567).The triumph of the Eucharist over ignorance and blindness, in the Tapestries Chamber.Antechoir.There are fifteen chappells on the high cloister. One of them houses the Christ lying down, sculpture by Gaspar Becerra.High choir.Main staircase.High cloister.Chappell of Our Lady of Guadalupe.Our Lady of Helpless in the antechoir.High cloister.The triumph of the Eucharist over ignorance and blindness, in the Tapestries Chamber.Calvary in the Tapestries Chamber.
Photos from postcards, books and websites 