The strategic position, on the Marignolle and Bellosguardo hills, resembles the original nucleus of an ancient sighting tower set in correspondence to the first city walls (1172) protecting Florence’s Oltrarno. The villa developed as a rural home, it was estate of the Calzaiuoli family first (1427), and of the Bartoli Agorais (around 145) and the Carnesecchis (1577) later. During Renaissance the latter family had the harmonious west façade done.
It became villa after the senator Lorenzo Strozzi, descendant of the famous Florentine familyin Renaissance age, bought it. For his marriage with Maria Simona Machiavelli (1614), great niece of the famous Niccolò, the count decides to start relevant works to expand the east side of the residence, which overlooks the Arcetri hill, resulting in a new facade, with majestic windows and the emblem on top of the main door.
The fact that the villa atavistically belonged to the Christianized People di Santo Larj a Cholombaja suggests the persistence of a possible rural cult of the Roman Lari. This was also confirmed by the pictorial representations which still exist in the rooms, like those on the ceiling of the grand entrance staircase. Decorations and figures which represent mythologized symbols and allegories recalls the prestigious antiques, although they date back to the property of the Marquises Fossi “one of the most distinguished Florentine families” (1814).