Villa Lysis

Villa Lysis is a villa on Capri built by industrialist and poet Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen in 1905. "Dedicated to the youth of love" , it was Fersen's self-chosen exile from France after a sex scandal involving Parisian schoolboys and nude tableaux vivants.

Fersen purchased the 12,000 square metres plot in 1904 for 15,000 lire from Salvia family. The villa's designer is unknown; for many years it was believed that French artist Edouard Chimot had designed the structure ; however, a recent analysis of letters from Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen to Chimot shows that Chimot did not perform that design. The garden around the villa was designed by Mimi Ruggiero, who planted the laurel and myrtle in honor of Venus The house was described in detail by Roger Peyrefitte in his novel The Exile of Capri , a fictionalized account of Adelswärd-Fersen's years on Capri together with his lover Nino Cesarini.

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