Milis, Boyl Palace

Milis is an important agricultural center that exploits a favorable geographical position because it is located in a territory made fertile by the abundance of water of the two rivers that run through it. It is known on the island for its citrus groves planted according to tradition by the Camaldolese in the 13th century. Palazzo Boyl is in the historic center of the town.
Palazzo Boyl stands on the site of a pre-existing stately home dating back to the 14th century. Now home to the Museum of Sardinian Jewelry and Costume, over time the building underwent numerous transformations. Until the last decades of the 18th century, it was owned by the Vacca family, whose descendant married the Marquis Vittorio Pilo Boyl of Putifigari. The latter, a military engineer, in collaboration with his brother Carlo, carried out the current modernizations and extensions of the villa: the old building was incorporated into the new one, of which the entrance gallery and the neoclassical façade constitute the most interesting aspects.
Today's building is spread out in length and has a series of windows arranged regularly on two floors on the façade, all surmounted by slightly projecting shelves. The central part, slightly advanced, is vertically punctuated by four pilasters, surmounted, only on the lower floor, by Ionic capitals. In the central body, the large entrance portal opens, surmounted by a wrought-iron balcony and, even higher, by a belvedere terrace on whose parapet rest four white marble busts, allegories of the seasons.
Important and illustrious guests were received in the Boyl family's new and elegant home: the royal family visiting Sardinia, Valery, librarian from Versailles and traveler to Sardinia, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Grazia Deledda and others.
The Boyl family maintained ownership of the villa until 1978, when it was purchased by the Municipality of Milis, which carried out the restoration work. On the façade, white frames, pilasters and marcapiano frame stand out against the beautiful Pompeian red of the walls. In the courtyard, a space has been created for various events with hundreds of seats, the lower floor consists of a series of representative rooms, while in the upper rooms, spaces have been created for conferences and rooms intended for museums.

History of studies
The building is the subject of a brief summary in Salvatore Naitza's volume on late seventeenth-century and purist architecture (1992).

Bibliography by
Augusto Cavallari Murat, The Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in Sardinia in Proceedings of the XIII Congress on the History of Architecture, Turin 1963;
V. Mossa, From Gothic to Baroque in Sardinia, Delfino, Sassari 1982; S. Naitza, Architecture from the late 17th century to purist classicism.
Nuoro, Ilisso, 1992, sheet 55.