VILLA DEL MATEMATICO [IT]

Exploration #128 Villa del Matematico. This large villa, built between the 18th and 19th centuries, belonged to a brilliant professor of mathematical analysis, one of the greatest mathematician of the first half of the 20th century.

Already a professor at several Italian universities, he was called to Pisa in 1930 with the hope of reviving the fortunes of the Scuola Normale, a task which he performed admirably. He was a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Pontificia Accademia delle Scienze and various other Italian and foreign academies and scientific institutions, which awarded him various prizes and recognitions. After his death, the University of Pisa named the Institute of Mathematics after him.

The villa was first used during his periods of rest and from August 1943 as a fixed abode due to the bombing of his main house in Pisa. The professor was also one of the 13 signatories of the anti-fascist Manifesto of the philosopher Benedetto Croce and, together with other local personalities, it was in this villa that he set up the local committee of the C.L.N., which shortly afterwards formed the partisan formation in the Pisan mountains “Nevilio Casarosa”, which proved decisive in the victory and liberation against the Germans.

After his death, the villa was inhabited by one of his daughters, who abandoned it in the late 1990s for unknown reasons. The Villa del Matematico is now in a very precarious condition, the second floor has completely collapsed and only a few rooms on the first floor are accessible. On the ground floor, however, there are still documents that belonged to the emeritus professor and many paintings that were probably painted by his daughter. The property is currently being sold for more than EUR 1 million, but the villa is running out of time before it finally collapses.