Dulcis Domus

• Prize
  Gold in Architecture/Interiors
• Photographer
  Mirna Pavlovic

“Dulcis Domus“ is a project which documents abandoned villas, castles and palaces. In this series I present only abandoned Italian villas, belonging to once affluent families, ranking high in status and in wealth. The Second World War left many scars, but in terms of abandoned villas of wealthy families, most of them are concentrated in Italy, due to its precarious political position in the war. Most of these homes were abandoned, appropriated by the regime and then reappropriated by the surviving members of the families after the conflict ended, only to once again be abandoned when the world entered post-war economic fluctuations. A staggering number of them now stand abandoned and overgrown, often very difficult to reach. I wanted to preserve the memory of the places as well as the families who once lived there, by documenting and retelling the hidden histories of these spatial and temporal incongruities that were once called home.