Silvio Berlusconi died at the age of 86, having repeatedly declared himself and his doctors to be “technically immortal”. Practically, he was not, but in more than sixty years of reckless business and financial career he managed to create an empire worthy of the best Netflix series. In addition to his industrial, political, media and sports legacy, il Cavaliere leaves his five children, ex-wives and near-wives a vast real estate heritage, made up of ancient palaces and magnificent villas in Italy and around the world.
According to Forbes magazine, in 2021 Berlusconi could boast a personal wealth estimated at 7,300 million dollars (about 6,000 million euros). The fortune of the three times president of the Italian government was built on real estate investments and throughout his life he never stopped the whirlwind of acquisitions and sales of princely properties, some of which have entered the popular imagination as the Xanadu of Citizen Kane, the masterpiece with which Orson Welles portrayed the tycoon William Randolph Hearst, the paradigm of all the Berlusconi that would come.
The thirty buildings directly attributable to the President are characterized by their grandeur, with majestic gardens and even secret rooms. The historic residence was Villa San Martino, in Arcore, a small fraction of Monza, on the outskirts of Milan. Here, during the political parable of the founder of Mediaset, the fate of Italy in the last thirty years was decided.
The mansion, built by the Casati Stampa marquises in the 18th century and acquired by the then builder for a surprisingly favorable price, includes an art gallery, a library with 10,000 volumes and a park with a stable. Here, in 1990, the tycoon had a personal mausoleum built, called The Celestial Vault, with niches for himself, his family and his closest collaborators. Inside the villa there is also a discotheque with the famous pole where elegant dinners, known throughout the world as bunga bunga, were consumed.
The other residence that occupied the heart of Berlusconi is undoubtedly Villa Certosa, in Porto Rotondo, on the Emerald Coast of Sardinia. The 4,500 square meter villa with 126 rooms, which became an alternative maximum security headquarters for the prime minister’s safety, hosted world leaders such as George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin.
In the golden years of Berlusconism, the histrionic Italian politician loved to entertain his guests by singing in the moonlight in the immense 120-hectare park where, among waterfalls and artificial lakes with islands for meditation, medicinal gardens, an amphitheater of Greco-Roman style, statues, more than two thousand cacti and citrus groves, there is even a fake volcano activated with fireworks on summer nights. In January 2021, a technical appraisal valued the villa at 259 million euros.
For many years, Silvio Berlusconi’s third official home was Palazzo Grazioli, in Rome. If Arcore was the place for the family and Villa Certosa for vacations, this was the political residence. From 1996 to 2020, the building, built in the 16th century and located near the main Italian institutional headquarters, was daily at the center of national political news. Inside there is a hemicycle that was often used as a small parliament to gather party members.
Il Cavaliere had rented the 1,000 square meters of the stately floor of the palace for 40,000 euros a month, but in recent years he decided to move his Roman residence to the mansion he owned in the Appia Antica, Villa Grande, rented for many years to the director film Franco Zeffirelli. Here he experienced the latest political events, surrounded by maritime pines and avenues adorned with busts of senators and tribunes of the Roman Empire.
In Brianza, the area between Milan and Lake Como, in addition to Villa San Martino, Berlusconi owned many other historic residences, including Villa Gernetto in Lesmo, which was to house the University of Liberal Thought, the residence in via Rovani in the center of Milan, Villa Belvedere, in Macherio, and Villa Campari, on Lake Maggiore. As well as a splendid villa overlooking the sea in Portofino, on the Ligurian Riviera.
Villa Belvedere, in particular, was for a few years the residence of his second wife, Veronica Lario, after the multimillion-dollar divorce of 2010. The 18th-century building was one of the most intricate nodes of the separation, as the initial proposal assigned the woman the use of the villa and forced Berlusconi to pay the very high management bills, including 1.8 million euros a year for the twenty employees and 487 thousand euros for security.
For its part, Villa Campari is characterized by direct access to the lake, the neoclassical style and a characteristic circular porch on the ground floor. Splendidly preserved, it is one of the most beautiful historic mansions on the Piedmontese coast. In the northern Italian lakes, Berlusconi also owned Villa Comalcione, on the glamorous Lake Como. With its 30 rooms, three thousand square meters of park, tennis court and private pier, the residence offers a wide range of comforts and services.
In 2011, in the midst of one of the many migratory emergencies that Italy has undergone in recent years, Berlusconi visited the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, a few kilometers from Tunis and the landing place for thousands of African immigrants. On that occasion, the politician surprised by announcing that he would buy a house on the small island to “become a Lampedusan.” Villa due Palme is located in front of the turquoise waters of Cala Francese, it has an area of ??250 square meters, eight rooms and a large garden. It was acquired online for 1.5 million euros and apparently the youngest of the dynasty, Luigi, is its biggest frequenter.
Outside of Italy, Berlusconi’s real estate assets become less traceable, but Villa Blue Horizon in Bermuda and several properties in Antigua stand out among the best-known residences. Those of Antigua, in fact, were the object of the attention of the Italian media in the context of investigations into huge funds that the politician sent to the Caribbean paradise. They are located in a practically untouched part of the island and for the residents the tycoon is an important businessman who has brought prosperity, so much so that they renamed the cove “the president’s bay”.
Finally, in 2019, Berlusconi bought Villa Lampara for 3.6 million euros, a period residence on the hill of Cannes, on the French Riviera, in the area called La Californie, with extraordinary views of the sea and a beautiful swimming pool. Here, the elderly leader spent most of his confinement during the pandemic and, in 2022, he entrusted Sotheby’s with the mandate for the sale of the residence. Now all decisions about the future of the real estate accumulated by the Italian leader pass into the hands of the lucky heirs and his lawyers.
