Villa Idina

Lord Thomas Allnutt Brassey's Summer Residence

Villa Idina

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Villa Idina, or Villa Ginestra, built around 1907 in the village of Pitzinurri, south-east of Ingurtosu, was intended as the summer residence of Lord Thomas Allnutt Brassey and his wife, Lady Idina Nevill.

The villa, with a rectangular plan, is spread over three levels on the western side and two levels on the eastern side, reflecting a sober elegance. Its architecture presents clear references to the Liberty style, typical of Northern Europe and in particular of the Anglo-Saxon context, as demonstrated by the internal cloister and the prodrome on the façade. The architectural lines are simple but refined, and the use of refined decorative elements underlines the influence of this style.

The load-bearing structure of the building is composed of walls in local granite with the accessory use of brick. The rectangular windows, arranged symmetrically on the four sides, give harmony to the architectural ensemble. A distinctive element of the villa was the glass roof, now unfortunately destroyed, which covered the small internal cloister. The gabled roof, with a wooden structure, was completed by a reed bed on which the tiles were fixed.

The main entrance leads to a small cloister covered by a skylight, where there is an "L" shaped staircase that connects the ground floor to the upper sleeping area, with a cast iron balustrade and white marble treads. On the side of the building, a staircase leads to the lower level, where there is a portico covered by a terrace, which connects to an accessory body and several rooms intended for the servants. This layout reflects the typical organization of stately homes, with a clear separation between the areas reserved for the owners and those intended for the service staff.

With the crisis in mining activities in the 1950s, Villa Idina was also gradually abandoned and, from 1960, the villa fell into ruin. Today, the walls, part of the plaster, the attics, the stairs, and traces of the fireplaces remain of the original building. Among the surviving internal decorative elements, we can note the stucco reliefs on the ceilings of the main rooms and the cast iron brackets that supported the skylight. Externally, we can still see the brick columns that supported the roofs of the terrace and the prodrome, as well as the shaped wooden elements that supported the roof overhang and the galvanized sheet metal gutter.

The external openings, made with granite ashlars arranged alternating on the sides and at the ends, were architraved, giving solidity and a distinctive aesthetic to the villa's openings.

The building was equipped with a series of technical rooms in the basement, including a woodshed and cellars.

The terrace offers a view that dominates the coast, from Capo Pecora to Piscinas.













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