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Villa Meo – Evoli was built in the 1700s and currently houses a B&B with six bedrooms and a “trullo”, the latter used as a separate apartment and holiday home.

The villa was originally owned by the Martinelli family, but later passed to the wife of a member of the Meo – Evoli family, hence its current name.
It was built by the noble Vito Giuseppe Martinelli (1758-1833), the first of the family to move from Mola to Monopoli, where he developed the cloth and silk trade, as well as oil and wine mongering and thus improving the local economy; he soon became wealthy enough to afford such a prestigious abode.

The furnishings inside the villa, all Rococo-style original pieces, still speak of comfort and cosy conviviality sought by original owners.

The structure also includes an interesting museum built in 1837 by Francesco Paolo Martinelli, a man of great culture, politician and legislator, as well as a lover of arts and, above all, of sculpture.

THE GARDEN

The garden is a reproduction of the Italian garden, rich in plant species, fountains, sculptures (both medieval and from the XVIII century), as well as archaeological finds.
The garden was designed in order to let water falling from the “fountain of the Bacchus” – at a greater altitude – to reach all the other seven fountains.

The garden is currently part of the museum network of the Municipality of Monopoli as one of its kind in the whole Apulian territory. There are also depictions of the garden inside the villa, reproduced on some walls of the building, with perfect hedges, statues and fountains, as well as and Ionic-style columns: the same on the very facade of the villa.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)