Villa San Michele
Axel Munthe · Anacapri, Italy · 1896
Villa San Michele in Anacapri was created by Swedish physician and writer Axel Munthe as a house, garden, and personal museum. Built on the site of earlier ruins, the villa combines fragments, loggias, terraces, pergolas, and long views over the Bay of Naples. Its architecture is intentionally hybrid: part residence, part collection, part landscape device. Rather than presenting a pure historical style, it stages memory and atmosphere through assembled elements and carefully framed vistas. The building is important because it represents a modern romantic approach to Mediterranean architecture, where archaeology, biography, and garden design merge. It remains one of the most architecturally rewarding visits on Capri.