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Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
The Vizcaya is a North Italian
16th century villa or estate sitting on Biscayne Bay in Miami,
Florida that was designed and built for agricultural giant James
Deering for his winter residence. Miami-Dade County owns the
beautiful mansion that is open for the public under the name Vizcaya
Museum and Gardens. The estate consisted of 180 acres of land that
included the house, formal gardens, huge lagoon gardens and a
village nearby that took care of the estate. The main villa was
constructed in 1914 and finished in 1916, while the extensive
gardens not finished until the early 1920s. In the later years of
building, materials and labor was difficult to find because of the
first World War; and the house has been noted for its adaption of
European cultural traditions to the area's subtropical landscape.
The house itself blends European marble with the state's limestone,
and the gardens are more Italian, but using plants that would adapt
well to the climate. Deering would use the villa from 1916 until his
passing in 1925. His advisor for the estate was Paul Chalfin, a
decorative painter and curator that became involved in Deering's
assembling of artworks and architectural materials for the entire
project. He recommended the architect F. Burrall Hoffman to design
the buildings on the property, with the gardens being designed by
landscape architect Diego Suarez. The name of the property, Vizcaya,
is based on the Basque province of the same name that looks out over
the Bay of Biscay while the Vizcaya looks out over Biscayne Bay.
Deering hoped to perpetuate the myth of Vizcaya, who was an explorer
who favored the caravel, a ship that was used during that period,
and incorporated the ship's symbol into the property's persona. The
name Vizcaya means elevated place in Basque and a representation of
the explorer, Bel Vizcaya, welcomes visitors to the property's
entry. The main house is a mixture of many various Italian villas
from the research that was done by Chalfin and others, although the
house looks more like the Villa Rezzonico at Bassano del Grappa; and
often referred to as the Hearst Castle of the East. Deering's
descendants gave much of the property to the Archdiocese of St.
Augustine and to Mercy Hospital in 1945. About 50 acres with the
house, gardens and village are still standing, which were given to
the county, in numerous transactions, but the county got the main
house, and gardens for $1 million in revenue bonds and his heirs
donated the furnishings and artworks to the county; with the village
and remainder of the property given to the county in the mid1950s.
It opened for public tours in 1953, as the Dade County Art Museum
and in 1994 was made a National Historic Landmark. It was listed as
a National Register Historic Places in 1970, and increased in 1978.
The main house is now officially called the Vizcaya Museum and
Gardens, that contains the house, furnishings and art, as well as
the formal gardens. It sits on 50 acres, with 10 of that being
filled with the botanical gardens, and the museum houses more than
70 decorated rooms with many relics but dominated by the 15th
through early 19th centuries European decorative art and
furnishings. In 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservation
put the estate on the nation's 11 most endangered places, because of
the constant threat of high-rise development on nearby properties.
The site was picked for the formal welcoming of Pope John Paul II
when he came to this country in 1987 and greeted by President Ronald
Reagan. It became the venue for the 1st Summit of the Americas that
occurred in December, 1994 that was hosted by President William
Clinton and was the first in a series of summits for leaders of the
American countries. From North, South and Central America, 34
delegates from nations came to Miami to create the FTAA, or Free
Trade Area of the Americas. Every country was invited, except Cuba.
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