Antika Villa, Panarea

Antika Villa, Panarea, Aeolian Islands, Sicily

I was contacted to photograph this stunning villa called Antika on the island of Panarea, where I regularly go, as we have a family house there. I have photographed many houses on this beautiful island over the years, but few are so visually breathtaking as this.

This villa, originally known as Casa Aguzzi, had sadly fallen into disrepair, but was recently acquired and completely refurbished by an Australian couple. They bravely undertook the huge task of restoring the interlocking cluster of buildings, which they then renamed “Antika”. This they endeavoured to do with great respect and sensitivity, maintaining many of the original design quirks and features. Local materials were used, iron door and window fixtures and fittings were painstakingly restored, and they closely followed traditional methods of building and detailing, including hand stuccoing the interior walls, using ancient marmorino renders.

This house was originally designed and built by Paolo Tilche in the early 1970s. Tilche not only designed many of the most stunning villas on Panarea but he also built the iconic Raya Hotel, one of the most celebrated hotels of the Mediterranean, and his design genius and style shines through in Antika today as it did back then.

My feature of this house was published in Ville e Casali magazine, July 2004, including the cover image – see here

These photographs were also featured as Apalmanac’s Project of the Week in November 2024

A wider selection of images is available here