Enchantment of the senses

Nestled in the most genuine natural frame of Capri, after a pleasant walk uphill towards Mount Tiberio, Villa Lysis opens up to the visitor’s eyes as one of the best hidden jewels of the island.
There is something magical about Villa Lysis. It was built in 1904 by will of Jacques d’Adelswärd Fersen, a nobleman from Paris who chose the island as his voluntary exile destination, after his life had been shattered by a number of scandals that led him to leave his native country and to create what we would call a lifelong link with his new home place.
Elegant, eccentric, luxurious, secluded, monumental, the Villa was, above all, an intimate shelter where Fersen enjoyed his carefree flirts with Nino Cesarini, a young man from Rome, until the latter’s premature death.
Over time, Villa Lysis turned into a meeting place for artists, intellectuals, poets and writers, who stayed in Capri at the beginning of last century and skillfully described and praised its myth.

Visiting Villa Lysis means discovering its secrets and wonders. Entrance halls, stuccos, decorations, furnishing, precious marbles, you won’t find one single detail lacking peculiar inspirations: from Louis XVI-style to Neoclassical theatricality, from the grandeur of ancient Greece to the sinuous forms of art nouveau, from the gilding of Vienna Secession to the contaminations of Oriental art.
The result is an extraordinary Villa on a spur overlooking the sea with breathtaking views of Marina Grande and the Gulf of Naples.
The symbol of Villa Lysis is its majestic staircase culminating in the peristyle with Ionic columns, where the inscription “Amori et Dolori Sacrum”, commissioned by Fersen himself, embodies the real essence of his life.