One of the more delightful finds of traveling in Europe is the house museum, residences transformed into museums and galleries and known for a prior owner who established a collection of outstanding works, either in architecture, sculpture, furniture, or art — and the house-museum devoted to Frederick Stibbert, who lived from 1838-1906, in Florence, Italy, stands high among such places.
Inside the Stibbert Museum , or as its known in Italy, the Museo Stibbert, visitors will discover walls draped in tapestries and leather, rooms filled with paintings and still-lifes, porcelains, Etruscan artifacts, Tuscan crucifixes, and even clothing worn by Napoleon the 1st of France. Perhaps the biggest part of the museum, though, is its arms and armor collection — 12,000 pieces of Asian, Islamic, European, and Japanese arms — from the 15th century to the 19th century. This collection, in fact, is known as one of the most significant in the world. In a grand hall, visitors will also find 14 16th Century knights on horseback, as well as 14 foot-soldiers, all dressed in armor and holding weapons. The collection of Samurai armor alone holds 80 suits and hundreds of swords.
Stibbert’s family was very wealthy, the money coming from his grandfather, Giles Stibbert, who was the commander-in-chief for the British East India Company in Bengal, India, at the end of the 1700s, where he was governor for years. Frederick Stibbert inherited the estate from his grandfather and then did not work again for the rest of his life. Instead, he became a collector, turning his villa into a museum. When his collection outgrew his home, he had three men — architect Giuseppe Poggi, painter Gaetana Bianchi, and sculptor Passaglia — build on more rooms, just for the various artifacts. When Stibbert died, the city of Florence inherited the collection and opened the home to the public.
Once you’ve checked into your hotel, Florence beckons you — calling you to the Tuscany countryside, the wineries, and its famous sculpture and buildings — so it may be easy to overlook this house museum, but this unique villa of 57 rooms contains collected work from all over the world that strongly invites a visit.
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