
A villa is a type of house that was originally an
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life.
Since its origins in the
Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...
, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
. They gradually re-evolved through the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
into elegant upper-class country homes. In the
early modern period
The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
, any comfortable detached house with a garden near a city or town was likely to be described as a villa; most surviving villas have now been engulfed by
suburbia. In modern parlance, "villa" can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
an
semi-detached
A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single-family Duplex (building), duplex dwelling that shares one common party wall, wall with its neighbour. The name distinguishes this style of construction from detached houses, with no sh ...
double villa to, in some countries, especially around the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
, residences of above average size in the countryside.
Roman
Roman villas included:
* the ''villa urbana'', a suburban or country seat that could easily be reached from
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
or another city for a night or two. They often featured decorated rooms and porticoes.
* the ''
villa rustica'', the farm-house estate that was permanently occupied by the servants who had charge generally of the estate, which would centre on the villa itself, perhaps only seasonally occupied.
The Roman ''villae rusticae'' at the heart of ''
latifundia'' were the earliest versions of what later and elsewhere became called
manors and
plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
s.
* the ''
otium villa'', for rural retirement or pleasure.
In terms of design, there was often little difference in the main residence between these types at any particular level of size, but the presence or absence of farm outbuildings reflected the size and function of the estate.
Not included as ''villae'' were the ''
domus'', city houses for the élite and privileged classes, and the ''
insulae'', blocks of
apartment buildings for the rest of the population. In ''
Satyricon'' (1st century CE),
Petronius described the wide range of Roman dwellings. Another type of villae is the "villa maritima", a seaside villa, located on the coast.

A concentration of Imperial villas existed on the
Gulf of Naples, on the Isle of
Capri, at
Monte Circeo and at
Antium
Antium was an Ancient history, ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people unti ...
. Examples include the
Villa of the Papyri
The Villa of the Papyri (, also known as ''Villa dei Pisoni'' and in early excavation records as the ''Villa Suburbana'') was an ancient Roman Empire, Roman villa in Herculaneum, in what is now Ercolano, southern Italy. It is named after its un ...
in
Herculaneum
Herculaneum is an ancient Rome, ancient Roman town located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Like the nearby city of ...
; and the
Villa of the Mysteries and
Villa of the Vettii in
Pompeii
Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...
.
There was an important villa maritima in
Barcola near Trieste. This villa was located directly on the coast and was divided into terraces in a representation area in which luxury and power was displayed, a separate living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath. Not far from this noble place, which was already popular with the Romans because of its favorable microclimate, one of the most important Villa Maritima of its time, the
Miramare Castle, was built in the 19th century.
Wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (
Tivoli and
Frascati), such as at
Hadrian's Villa.
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near
Arpinum, which he inherited.
Pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions.
Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their ''latifundium'' villas, where they drank their own
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
and pressed their own
oil. This was an affectation of urban aristocrats playing at being old-fashioned virtuous Roman farmers; it has been said that the economic independence of later rural villas was a symptom of the increasing economic fragmentation of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
.
In Roman Britannia
Archaeologists have meticulously examined numerous
Roman villas in England. Like their Italian counterparts, they were complete working agrarian societies of fields and
vineyard
A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s, perhaps even
tileworks or
quarries, ranged round a high-status power centre with its baths and gardens.
The grand villa at
Woodchester preserved its
mosaic
A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...
floors when the
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
parish church was built (not by chance) upon its site. Grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial ''villa rustica'' at
Fishbourne near
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
was built (uncharacteristically) as a large open rectangle, with
porticos enclosing gardens entered through a portico. Towards the end of the 3rd century, Roman towns in
Britain ceased to expand: like patricians near the centre of the empire, Roman Britons withdrew from the cities to their villas, which entered on a palatial building phase, a "golden age" of villa life. ''Villae rusticae'' are essential in the Empire's economy.

Two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of rooms all opening onto a linking portico, which might be extended at right angles, even to enclose a
courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky.
Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...
. The other kind featured an aisled central hall like a
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
, suggesting the villa owner's magisterial role. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards.
Timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with
mortises and tenons and
dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window
glass
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
have been found, as well as ironwork window
grilles.
Monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
villas of Late Antiquity
With the
decline and collapse of the
Western Roman Empire
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...
in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned,
looted, and burned by
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
invaders in the fifth century, but the concept of an isolated, self-sufficient agrarian working community, housed close together, survived into Anglo-Saxon culture as the ''
vill'', with its inhabitants – if formally bound to the land – as ''
villein
A villein is a class of serfdom, serf tied to the land under the feudal system. As part of the contract with the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villeins existe ...
s''.
In regions on the Continent,
aristocrats and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individual
monks; these might become the nuclei of
monasteries. In this way, the Italian villa system of
late Antiquity
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
survived into the
early Medieval
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...
period in the form of monasteries that withstood the disruptions of the
Gothic War (535–554)
The Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Roman emperor, Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian peninsula, Dalmatia (theme), Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Cors ...
and the
Lombards. About 529
Benedict of Nursia established his influential monastery of
Monte Cassino
The Abbey of Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a Catholic Church, Catholic, Benedictines, Benedictine monastery on a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Valle Latina, Latin Valley. Located on the site of the ancient ...
in the ruins of a villa at
Subiaco that had belonged to
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...
.
From the sixth to the eighth century,
Gallo-Roman villas in the
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
royal
fisc were repeatedly donated as sites for monasteries under royal patronage in
Gaul
Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...
–
Saint-Maur-des-Fossés and
Fleury Abbey provide examples. In Germany a famous example is
Echternach; as late as 698,
Willibrord established an abbey at a Roman villa of Echternach near
Trier
Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...
, presented to him by
Irmina, daughter of
Dagobert II, king of the
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
.
Kintzheim was ''Villa Regis'', the "villa of the king". Around 590,
Saint Eligius was born in a highly placed
Gallo-Roman family at the 'villa' of Chaptelat near
Limoges
Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...
, in
Aquitaine
Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...
(now France). The
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
at
Stavelot was founded ca 650 on the domain of a former villa near
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
and the abbey of
Vézelay had a similar founding.
Post-Roman era
As Europe's influence spread to other cultures, the form, and use of the villa would also spread as well. In post-Roman times a ''villa'' referred to a self-sufficient, usually fortified Italian or
Gallo-Roman farmstead. It was economically as self-sufficient as a ''
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
'' and its inhabitants, who might be legally tied to it as
serfs were ''
villein
A villein is a class of serfdom, serf tied to the land under the feudal system. As part of the contract with the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villeins existe ...
s''. The
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
inherited the concept, followed by the Carolingian French but the later French term was ''basti'' or ''bastide.''
''Villa''/''Vila'' (or its cognates) is part of many Spanish and Portuguese placenames, like
Vila Real
Vila Real () is the capital and largest city of the Vila Real District, in the Norte, Portugal, North region, Portugal. It is also the seat of the Douro (intermunicipal community), Douro Intermunicipal communities of Portugal, intermunicipal comm ...
and
Villadiego: a ''villa''/''vila'' is a town with a
charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
(''
fuero'' or ''
foral'') of lesser importance than a ''ciudad''/''cidade'' ("city"). When it is associated with a personal name, ''villa'' was probably used in the original sense of a country estate rather than a chartered town. Later evolution has made the Hispanic distinction between ''villas'' and ''ciudades'' a purely honorific one.
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
is the ''Villa y
Corte'', the villa considered to be separate from the formerly mobile
royal court, but the much smaller
Ciudad Real was declared ''ciudad'' by the Spanish crown.
Italian Renaissance
Tuscany
In 14th and 15th century Italy, a ''villa'' once more connoted a country house, like the first
Medici villas, the
Villa del Trebbio and that at
Cafaggiolo, both strong fortified houses built in the 14th century in the
Mugello region near
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
. In 1450,
Giovanni de' Medici commenced on a hillside the
Villa Medici in Fiesole,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
, probably the first villa created under the instructions of
Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the natu ...
, who theorized the features of the new idea of villa in his ''
De re aedificatoria''.
These first examples of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
villa predate the age of
Lorenzo de' Medici, who added the
Villa di Poggio a Caiano by
Giuliano da Sangallo, begun in 1470, in
Poggio a Caiano,
Province of Prato,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
.
From Tuscany the idea of ''villa'' was spread again through
Renaissance Italy and Europe.
Tuscan villa gardens
The
Quattrocento villa gardens were treated as a fundamental and aesthetic link between a residential building and the outdoors, with views over a humanized agricultural
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
, at that time the only desirable aspect of
nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
. Later villas and gardens include the
Palazzo Pitti and
Boboli Gardens in Florence, and the
Villa di Pratolino in
Vaglia.
Rome
Rome had more than its share of villas with easy reach of the small sixteenth-century city: the progenitor, the first ''
villa suburbana'' built since Antiquity, was the
Belvedere or ''palazzetto'', designed by
Antonio del Pollaiuolo and built on the slope above the
Vatican Palace.

The
Villa Madama, the design of which, attributed to Raphael and carried out by
Giulio Romano in 1520, was one of the most influential private houses ever built; elements derived from Villa Madama appeared in villas through the 19th century.
Villa Albani was built near the Porta Salaria. Other are the
Villa Borghese; the
Villa Doria Pamphili (1650); the
Villa Giulia of
Pope Julius III (1550), designed by
Vignola. The Roman villas
Villa Ludovisi and Villa Montalto, were destroyed during the late nineteenth century in the wake of the
real estate bubble that took place in Rome after the seat of government of a united Italy was established at Rome.
The cool hills of
Frascati gained the
Villa Aldobrandini (1592); the
Villa Falconieri and the
Villa Mondragone. The
Villa d'Este near
Tivoli is famous for the water play in its terraced
gardens. The
Villa Medici was on the edge of Rome, on the
Pincian Hill, when it was built in 1540. Besides these designed for seasonal pleasure, usually located within easy distance of a city, other Italian villas were remade from a ''
rocca'' or castello, as the family seat of power, such as
Villa Caprarola for the
Farnese.
Near
Siena
Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...
in Tuscany, the
Villa Cetinale was built by Cardinal
Flavio Chigi. He employed
Carlo Fontana, pupil of
Gian Lorenzo Bernini to transform the villa and dramatic gardens in a
Roman Baroque style by 1680. The
Villa Lante garden is one of the most sublime creations of the Italian villa in the landscape, completed in the 17th century.
Venice
In the later 16th century in the northeastern
Italian Peninsula the
Palladian villas of the Veneto, designed by
Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), were built in
Vicenza in the
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...
. Palladio always designed his villas with reference to their setting. He often unified all the farm buildings into the architecture of his extended villas while focusing on symmetry and perfect proportion.
Examples are the
Villa Emo, the
Villa Godi, the
Villa Forni Cerato, the
Villa Capra "La Rotonda", and
Villa Foscari.
The Villas are grouped into an association (Associazione Ville Venete) and offer touristic itineraries and accommodation possibilities.
Villas elsewhere
17th century
Soon after in
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
England, following his 1613–1615
Grand Tour,
Inigo Jones designed and built the
Queen's House between 1615 and 1617 in an early
Palladian architecture style adaptation in another country. The Palladian villa style renewed its influence in different countries and eras and remained influential for over four hundred years, with the
Neo-Palladian a part of the late 17th century and on
Renaissance Revival architecture period.
18th and 19th centuries
In the early 18th century the English took up the term, and applied it to compact houses in the country, especially those accessible from London:
Chiswick House is an example of such a "party villa". Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and
Inigo Jones, soon
Neo-Palladian villas dotted the valley of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
and English countryside.
Marble Hill House in England was conceived originally as a "villa" in the 18th-century sense.
In many ways the late 18th century
Monticello, by
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, United States is a
Palladian Revival villa. Other examples of the period and style are
Hammond-Harwood House in
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...
; and many pre-
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
or antebellum
plantations, such as
Westover Plantation and many other
James River plantations as well dozens of
Antebellum era plantations in the rest of the
Old South functioned as the Roman
Latifundium villas had. A later revival, in the
Gilded Age and early 20th century, produced
The Breakers in
Newport, Rhode Island,
Filoli in
Woodside, California, and
Dumbarton Oaks in
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.; by architects-landscape architects such as
Richard Morris Hunt,
Willis Polk, and
Beatrix Farrand.
In the nineteenth century, the term ''villa'' was extended to describe any large
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
an house that was free-standing in a
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
d plot of ground. By the time 'semi-detached villas' were being erected at the turn of the twentieth century, the term collapsed under its extension and overuse.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the creation of large "Villenkolonien" in the German speaking countries, wealthy residential areas that were completely made up of large mansion houses and often built to an artfully created masterplan. Many large mansions for the wealthy German industrialists were built as well, such as
Villa Hügel in
Essen
Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
. The Villenkolonie of
Lichterfelde West in Berlin was conceived after an extended trip by the architect through the South of England.
Representative
historicist mansions in Germany include the
Heiligendamm and other
resort architecture mansions at the Baltic Sea,
Rose Island and
King's House on Schachen in the
Bavarian Alps,
Villa Dessauer in
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...
,
Villa Wahnfried in
Bayreuth
Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...
,
Drachenburg near
Bonn,
Hammerschmidt Villa in
Bonn, the
Liebermann Villa and
Britz House in Berlin,
Albrechtsberg, Eckberg, Villa Stockhausen and in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
,
Villa Waldberta in
Feldafing, in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
,
Jenisch House and
Budge-Palais in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, and in
Königstein,
Villa Stuck and in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Schloss Klink at
Lake Müritz,
Villa Ludwigshöhe in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...
,
Villa Haux in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
and
Weinberg House in
Waren.
In France the
Château de Ferrières is an example of the Italian
Neo-Renaissance style villa – and in Britain the
Mentmore Towers. A representative building of this style in Germany is
Villa Haas (designed by Ludwig Hofmann) in
Hesse.
Villa Hakasalmi in
Helsinki
Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
(built in 1834–46) represents Empire-era villa architecture. It was the home of
Aurora Karamzin (1808–1902) at the end of the 19th century and is now the
city museum of Helsinki,
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
.
20th – 21st centuries
Europe

During the 19th and 20th century, the term "villa" became widespread for detached mansions in Europe. Special forms are for instance
spa villas (''Kurvillen'' in German) and
seaside villas (''Bädervillen'' in German), that became especially popular at the end of the 19th century. The tradition established back then continued throughout the 20th century and even until today.
Another trend was the erection of rather minimalist mansions in the
Bauhaus style since the 1920s, that also continues until today.
In Denmark, Norway and Sweden "villa" denotes most forms of
single-family detached homes, regardless of size and standard.
Americas
The villa concept lived and lives on in the
haciendas of Latin America and the
estancias of Brazil and Argentina. The oldest are original Portuguese and
Spanish Colonial architecture; followed after independences in the Americas from Spain and Portugal, by the
Spanish Colonial Revival style with regional variations. In the 20th century
International Style
The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
villas were designed by
Roberto Burle Marx,
Oscar Niemeyer,
Luis Barragán, and other architects developing a unique Euro-Latin synthesized aesthetic.
Villas are particularly well represented in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and the West Coast of the United States, where they were originally commissioned by well travelled "upper-class" patrons moving on from the
Queen Anne style Victorian architecture and
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporated Renaissance and ...
. Communities such as
Montecito,
Pasadena,
Bel Air,
Beverly Hills, and
San Marino
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
in Southern California, and
Atherton and
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
are a few examples of villa density.
The popularity of
Mediterranean Revival architecture in its various iterations over the last century has been consistently used in that region and in
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. Just a few of the notable early architects were
Wallace Neff,
Addison Mizner,
Stanford White, and
George Washington Smith. A few examples are the
Harold Lloyd Estate in
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...
, Medici scale
Hearst Castle on the
Central Coast of California, and
Villa Montalvo in the
Santa Cruz Mountains of
Saratoga, California,
Villa Vizcaya in
Coconut Grove, Miami,
American Craftsman
American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...
versions are the
Gamble House and the villas by
Greene and Greene in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
Modern villas
Modern architecture
Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ...
has produced some important examples of buildings known as villas:
*
Villa Noailles by
Robert Mallet-Stevens in
Hyères, France
*
Villa Savoye
Villa Savoye () is a Modern architecture, modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris, France. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 usin ...
by
Le Corbusier in
Poissy, France
*
Villa Mairea by
Alvar Aalto in
Noormarkku, Finland
*
Villa Tugendhat by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
, Czech Republic
*
Villa Lewaro by
Vertner Tandy in
Irvington, New York
Country-villa examples:
*
Hollyhock House (1919) by
Frank Lloyd Wright in
Hollywood
*
Gropius House by
Walter Gropius (1937) in
Lincoln, Massachusetts
*
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...
by Frank Lloyd Wright (1939) in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, U.S.
*
Farnsworth House by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in
Plano, Illinois
*
Kaufmann Desert House by
Richard Neutra (1946) in
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
*
Auldbrass Plantation by Frank Lloyd Wright (1940–1951) in
Beaufort County, South Carolina
*
Palácio da Alvorada by
Oscar Niemeyer (1958) in
Brasília, Brazil
*
Getty Villa, in
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
Other
Today, the term "villa" is often applied to
vacation rental properties. In the United Kingdom the term is used for high quality detached homes in warm destinations, particularly
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
and the Mediterranean. The term is also used in Pakistan, and in some of the Caribbean islands such as
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
,
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy, officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barts (English) or St. Barth (French), is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. The island lies about southeast of the island ...
,
Saint Martin,
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
,
British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...
, and others. It is similar for the coastal resort areas of
Baja California Sur and mainland Mexico, and for
hospitality industry
The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars.
Sector ...
destination resort "luxury
bungalow
A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...
s" in various locations worldwide.
In Indonesia, the term "villa" is applied to Dutch colonial country houses (''landhuis''). Nowadays, the term is more popularly applied to vacation rental usually located in countryside area.
In Australia, "villas" or "villa units" are terms used to describe a type of
townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...
complex which contains, possibly smaller attached or detached houses of up to 3–4 bedrooms that were built since the early 1980s.
In New Zealand, "villa" refers almost exclusively to
Victorian and
Edwardian wooden
weatherboard houses mainly built between 1880 and 1914, characterised by high ceilings (often ),
sash windows, and a long entrance hall.
In South Korea, the term "villa" refers to small multi-household house with 4 floors or less.
In Cambodia, "villa" is used as a loanword in the local language of Khmer, and is generally used to describe any type of detached townhouse that features yard space. The term does not apply to any particular architectural style or size, the only features that distinguish a Khmer villa from another building are the yard space and being fully detached. The terms "twin-villa" and "mini-villa" have been coined meaning semi-detached and smaller versions respectively. Generally, these would be more luxurious and spacious houses than the more common row houses. The yard space would also typically feature some form of garden, trees or greenery. Generally, these would be properties in major cities, where there is more wealth and hence more luxurious houses.
See also
*
Dacha
*
Estate
*
Great house
*
Manor house
*
Mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
*
Ultimate bungalow
Notes
{{Authority control
Architectural history
House styles
House types
Architecture in Italy
Vacation rental
Tourist accommodations