NFL legend and four-time Super Bowl Champion Joe Montana put his stylistically and proportionally lavish Mediterranean-inspired estate in California back up for sale this summer. The 9,700 sq. ft. house was custom designed for Montana and his wife, who titled it, simply, Villa Montana. It is priced at $24.5 million.
The Montanas have had the Calistoga property up for sale before. The 503-acre spot has been on and off the market for over a decade, in fact, and first became available in the late 2000s, when it was hitched to a $50 million asking price. The estate emerged in 2019 with a $20 million price snip.
The custom-designed property was about five years in the making; construction concluded in 2003. Montana and his wife, Jennifer, wanted to bring memories of their Mediterranean travel-log home to California, and to that end the property finds inspiration in both French and Italian influences, and uses reclaimed materials from the region — some of which are historic, an altar from a 17th-century church among them. Doors, fireplaces and mantels, floors, and the estate’s front gates were also shipped from across the pond.
Other details include stucco and limestone walls, groin vaulted and raw timber ceilings, antique light fixtures, carved wood and stone, and steel-framed doors and windows. For such a large house, the accommodations are limited to three bedrooms; this is a house designed for entertaining, and features numerous amenities designed in a suitably atmospheric style.
The acreage makes for an astonishingly insulated privacy buffer. Near the house, gardens inspired by Provençal sustain the cohesion of the property’s fantastical tenor, and there are walkways throughout them interspersed with intimate corners for reflection or conversation. Olive trees and grape vines are elements of the landscaping, while a guest house and equestrian facilities augment the accommodations and overall lifestyle of this very special estate.
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