Priory

The Priory was Gabriele d’Annunzio’s last dwelling, which he furnished and decorated according to his tastes as “upholsterer beyond compare”: “All that is here reveals the traces of my style with the significance I wish to give to my style”. From being a simple farmhouse, that once belonged to the German art critic Henry Thode, d’Annunzio turned it into a home-museum that was the symbol of his “inimitable lifestyle”. There are about 10,000 objects and 33,000 books preserved in the rooms of the Priory, which are coupled with mysterious phrases and slogans written on the lintels or over the fireplaces, in a continuous game of symbolic references. The sacred atmosphere that can be sensed within is heightened by its scanty illumination. Stained glass windows, heavy drapes hanging at the windows, soft lights within the rooms make the Priory a mysterious and suggestive place where the photophobic Poet could live comfortably. D’Annunzio conceived and established the villa with great attention to detail, creating rooms suitable to various moments in one’s life: from the Music Room where he loved to listen to Luisa Bàccara, his last mistress, while standing behind heavy drapes; or the Leper’s Room that was created as his final dwelling, with its bed symbolizing two ages; or his Officina (Workshop), the study of a wordsmith, as he usually defined himself.