Villa Paolucci Merlini

A late Baroque villa that belonged to the Paolucci-Merlini family, it is located in the hamlet of Selbagnone. It is an imposing 17th-century four-storey building, softened by windows framed by a terracotta cordon moulded in a typically 18th-century manner. The façade is adorned with two flights of stairs leading to the central doorway surmounted by a beautiful wrought-iron balcony. The Villa is surrounded by a vast garden with centuries-old cedars of Lebanon, plain trees, pines and a rare example of ginkgo biloba.

According to legend, behind the figure of the ‘Marquis of Forlipopoli’, the most improbable of Mirandolina’s suitors in Carlo Goldoni’s ‘La locandiera’, lies that of Marquis Cosimo Merlini, whom we may have met in his villa at the entrance to Forlimpopoli, shortly before the writing of ‘La locandiera’. There is no certain proof, but the title appears unquestionable, as is the fact that the first name given to the municipal theatre of Forlimpopoli was ‘Goldoni’.

Currently, the Villa cannot be visited.