Who designed the Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano?

The victory at Calabria gave Lorenzo de' Medici confidence to keep working with Giuliano. Consequently, Lorenzo commissioned him to design a villa in Poggio a Caiano after holding a competition to determine the best design. Giuliano was able to use Leon Battista Alberti's design for the Villa Medici in Fiesole as his initial inspiration. Construction on the villa began in 1485 and remained largely unfinished throughout Lorenzo's life. His son, Giovanni, oversaw its completion after being elected pope as Pope Leo X. Giuliano's design featured classical design elements including Ionic columns and an ancient temple style façade. The Medici Villa in Poggia a Caiano is one of the oldest examples of Renaissance-style country villas and served as an inspiration for many future architects of the era.

Giuliano da Sangallo

Giuliano da Sangallo (c. 1445 – 1516) was an Italian sculptor, architect and military engineer active during the Italian Renaissance. He is known primarily for being the favored architect of Lorenzo de' Medici, his patron. In this role, Giuliano designed a villa for Lorenzo as well as a monastery for Augustinians and a church where a miracle was said to have taken place. Additionally, Giuliano was commissioned to build multiple structures for Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X. Leon Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi heavily influenced Sangallo and in turn, he influenced other important Renaissance figures such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, his brother Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, and his sons, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Francesco da Sangallo.

Giuliano da Sangallo (né Giuliano Giamberti) was born c. 1445 in Florence. His father, Francesco Giamberti, was a woodworker and an architect who worked closely with Cosimo de' Medici. This proved to be helpful to Giuliano and his brother, Antonio, later in life as it helped them to develop a close working relationship and friendship with Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici. As a child, Giuliano became an apprentice to a joiner. As an apprentice, his woodworking, building and sculpting skills drew the attention of Lorenzo de' Medici. In addition to his work as a joiner's apprentice, Giuliano had the opportunity to study the works of ancient architects such as Pliny the Younger and Vitruvius as well as his more immediate predecessors such as Leonardo Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. Through this, he was able to develop his creative eye, learn about classical design, and also develop what became a lifelong business relationship with Lorenzo de' Medici. Giuliano's first major, independent commission came from none other than the Medici family and it showed not only his architectural skill, but also his knowledge of defensive fortifications. Lorenzo the Magnificent called upon Giuliano to build military fortifications and manage the artillery in the town of Castellina against an invasion led by the Duke of Calabria. In this role, Giuliano successfully pushed out the Calabrian forces and showed his natural talent for military building and strategy.

In 1484, a child from the town of Prato claimed to have seen a painting of the Virgin Mary and an infant Jesus come to life on the side of the public jail. Santa Maria delle Carceri was commissioned after the townspeople declared this a miracle and decided that a church should be built at the site of the vision to commemorate it. For this project, Lorenzo de' Medici once again hired his favorite architect, Giuliano. His designs relied heavily on his study of the work of Alberti and Brunelleschi. Specifically, Sangallo used a Greek cross plan. This is a classical layout design that features four arms of equal length extending off of a central nave and it had not been used extensively in the Renaissance before that point. Construction began on the church in 1486, but the façade remains unfinished to this day.

In 1488, after the initial plans were set for the villa in Poggia a Caiano, Lorenzo de' Medici commissioned Giuliano to build a castle for Ferrante of Aragon, the King of Naples. The building of the castle was part of a larger political plan that the leaders of the different city-states of Renaissance Italy engaged in. When city-states were not warring with each other, they would send gifts as well as painters, sculptors, and architects to each other as diplomatic displays of good faith. Additionally, by sending Giuliano to Naples, the Medici family was attempting to export Florentine culture and architecture across the Italian Peninsula. Giuliano sought to build the castle near the open land by Castel Nuovo. Unfortunately, the castle was never built, but his sketches of the plan still remain. The palace design featured elements similar to that of Giuliano's first major commission, the Medici Villa. Similar elements between the Medici Villa and the castle in Naples include the raised platform on which the structures were built, two stairways leading to the main entrance, and a portico between the two stairways. Furthermore, both structures were built on a rectangular, symmetrical axis. After Giuliano completed his service for the king, he was sent back to Florence with gifts including money, paintings, and sculptures. Giuliano gave many of these gifts to Lorenzo de' Medici as a showing of appreciation for being his patron.
While Sangallo was designing the palace for the King of Naples, the King's son, the Duke of Calabria, wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici asking for a palace design as well. In response to this letter, Lorenzo sent another Giuliano, Giuliano da Maiano, to design his palace. Giorgio Vasari, the Renaissance author who wrote biographies of many Renaissance artists in "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects", falsely attributes the Duke of Calabria's palace to Giuliano da Sangallo. Also according to Vasari, after working in Naples, the Bishop of Ostia, later known as Pope Julius II, hired Giuliano to re-fortify his castle in Ostia. It is true that Sangallo worked on this project, but he did it along with another architect, Baccio Pontelli. Additionally, according to inscriptions in the castle, the renovation was completed in 1484, before Giuliano started working for the King of Naples.

After Giuliano returned from Naples, Lorenzo commissioned him once again to build a church for a group of Augustinian monks. This commission was meant to be used as an example of Medici family public patronage in Florence. Based on correspondences during that time, historians have inferred that construction began on the church in 1488. Chiesa di San Gallo was dedicated to the seventh century saint, Saint Gall of Ireland. According to Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo loved the design so much that he started referring to Giuliano as Giuliano da San Gallo. Eventually, the name caught on and Giuliano jokingly told Lorenzo that his actual surname, Giamberti, would be forgotten. Lorenzo responded by telling him that he was worthy of starting a new family line with the name Sangallo. In addition to this, the gate in the Florence city wall closest to the church became known as Porto San Gallo. During the 1529 Siege of Florence, the Florentine army retreated within the walls of the city. Unfortunately, since the church was built outside of the city walls, it was destroyed.

Around the same time that Giuliano da Sangallo was commissioned to build the Church of San Gallo, he was also commissioned by a wealthy Florentine merchant, Giuliano Gondi, of the old, Florentine banking Gondi family. After hearing of Sangallo's work for the Medici family and the King of Naples, Gondi requested that he build a new Palazzo Gondi in Florence. For this project, Giuliano relied on the design of the other large palaces in the city such as the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and Palazzo Strozzi. Like both of those palaces, the Palazzo Gondi featured the use of finer levels of stone on each ascending level of the façade. Unfortunately, like many of his commissions, this palace was not finished within Giuliano's lifetime or within the lifetime of his patron, Giuliano Gondi. The palace continued to be renovated and expanded on for almost two more centuries. Because of these renovations, historians have been unable to definitively identify Sangallo's original plan.

Shortly after Giuliano completed his work on Santa Maria delle Carceri, his patron and longtime friend Lorenzo died in 1492. After the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, a power vacuum was created that allowed an opportunity for France to invade Florence in 1494. The French invasion forced the Medici family and their followers, including Giuliano, out of Florence and into exile. Two years previously, the Bishop of Ostia, Giuliano della Rovere, had fled Italy after his rival in the church, Rodrigo Borgia, was elected Pope as Alexander VI in 1492. Using the shared exile and his past history as a patron of architecture, he convinced Sangallo to design a palace in Savona, France for him.
The palace design was greatly influenced by the Bishop's other estates such as the one in Vincoli and the fortress in Ostia that Sangallo helped renovate. Giuliano della Rovere was fueled by a rivalry with his cousin, Rafaelle della Rovere, to make his palace in Savona the biggest that the city had seen. Della Rovere achieved this by purchasing the properties surrounding the family estate. Like Alberti's design for the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Sangallo reconciled the fact that the palazzo was made up of multiple buildings by creating one large, towering façade. Also like the Palazzo Rucellai, Sangallo used the concept of reducing the size of each ascending level of the façade in order to make it appear more imposing from street level.

Giuliano's final work was to assist in the design and construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica. Sangallo was called upon to design the large dome atop the basilica. Pope Julius II, however, chose the design of Donato Bramante instead and construction began in 1506. The dome was influenced by the dome atop the Florence Cathedral which was designed by Bramante and Sangallo's role model, Filippo Brunelleschi. After Giuliano's distinguished career and close working relationship with Pope Julius II, Bramante's promotion left him devastated and he left Rome for Florence. After the death of Julius II and the subsequent election of Giovanni de' Medici to the papacy in 1513 as Pope Leo X, along with the death of Bramante in 1514, Giuliano was recalled to Rome from Florence to help rebuild the basilica. By this time however, Giuliano was over seventy years old and not well enough to travel back to Rome and oversee a project of such magnitude. Therefore, Pope Leo X selected another distinguished artist, Raphael, to assume control of the design of the new basilica.

Giuliano died in Florence in 1516.

Giuliano's legacy is unlike other architects of the era, because many of his largest works remain either unfinished or are no longer standing at all such as Santa Maria delle Carceri, Palazzo Gondi, and the Church of San Gallo. Instead, his legacy is largely based on more abstract concepts. Sangallo's legacy remains through his "Sienese Sketchbook". This sketchbook provides an intimate look into Sangallo's mind. It includes ideas he had for concepts ranging from new forms of artillery to cathedral domes to sculptures. Many of these designs were accompanied by measurements and technical details. Additionally, the sketchbook features drawings Sangallo did of already existing structures that he saw on his travels throughout Italy and Europe. Based on this, it appears that Sangallo was also interested in the study of medieval architecture as well as classical architecture.

In addition to the sketchbook, the name Sangallo came to be associated with high quality architecture, because of Giuliano's impressive career. After his reputation grew, other architects of the time adopted Sangallo as a name to try and associate themselves with Giuliano's skill and ability.

After a period of intensive land acquisition by the Medici family, in the area of Poggio a Caiano and also on the other bank of the Ombrone River, at Tavola, between 1470 and 1474, Lorenzo commissioned Giuliano da Sangallo to build a villa that became the prototype of the country's noble residences in the following centuries. In fact, Lorenzo, through his favorite architect, was among the first to conceive of an agrarian space in which the territory was ordered and shaped according to the requirements of harmony. At that time it began to set the idea of the villa-fortress (like the Medici Villa of Careggi, more like a castle made only thirty years ago by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, the grandfather of Lorenzo). This new aptitude was due to political issues, thanks to the period of peace and stability reached by Lorenzo's politics, and philosophical, according to the humanists.

Villa di Poggio a Caiano

The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, also called Ambra, is one of the most famous Medici villas and is located in Poggio a Caiano (Prato). Today it is state owned and it houses two museums: one of the historic apartments (ground floor and first floor) and the Museum of Still Life (second floor).

The villa is perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico, in this case to Giuliano da Sangallo towards 1480. It is no coincidence that this is a private building, where there are elements that later modeled for the future developments of the type of villas: internal and external penetration through filters such as loggias, symmetrical distribution of environments around a central salon ("Centrifugal" space), dominant position in the landscape, conscious recovery of classical architectural elements (such as the barrel vault and the ionic temple facade).

The villa is located in the middle of a hilltop, the last offshoot of the Montalbano mountains, in a strategic position, lying on the promontory towards the Ombrone river and the plain and dominating the road between Florence and Pistoia, which overwhelms the small heights here.
It was built by Lorenzo de' Medici after buying a rustic farm from Giovanni Rucellai, who in turn had bought what was then a simple fortress from Palla Strozzi, built by the Cancellieri family of Pistoia at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

Among the innovations of the era, the porch was placed on the ground floor (almost an interconnected area between the surrounding landscape and the villa), the classic porch and pediment on the noble floor and the lack of a central courtyard. Gradually the villa was enriched with works in a 'continuum' between architecture, painting and sculpture. The fresco of Filippino Lippi dates back to the period under the loggia on the first floor and perhaps the glazed majolica pediment attributed to Andrea Sansovino (some historians refer to a second constructive step).

Giuliano da Sangallo is another building within the estate: It is a square and bastioned structure at the central court, called "Cascine" located on the other shore of the Umbrella and which, as a center of agricultural activity, built before the villa, was its ideal counterweight in the overall territorial design.

At the death of Lorenzo in 1492 the work at the villa was still largely unfinished and was halted between 1495 and 1513 because of the exile of the Medici from Florence. The villa was complete only for a third, the base (Ttura) with the already complete porch and the floor planks on the first floor of the vault of the vault that had to cover the central salon.

Between 1513 and 1520, after the return of the Medici, the works were completed on the initiative of the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Giovanni, who had in the meantime became Pope Leo X. Giuliano da Sangallo, now an old man, was able to follow the work only occasionally and until 1516, the year of his death. However, the works continued according to his plan, probably also documented by a wooden model. The vault of the central hall on the first floor was made with the papal coat of arms (which was then referred to as "Leo X's Lion"), under the direction of Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini and Franciabigio. From the beginning, the large barrel vault had caused concern, from the beginning, by the buyers, who feared a collapse. This fear was allayed by Sebastiano Ximenes because of the work on his own Palazzo Ximenes da Sangallo in Florence.

Already in Leo X's day, the frescoes of the salon were started by the greatest Florentine masters of the time: Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and the Franciscan himself. The paintings were completed some fifty years later by Alessandro Allori, with a rethinking of the original project in a more monumental key, giving more space to the figures than to painted architectures.

The villa was the place where foreign brides of the family members in Florence were welcomed. Here, among other events, were the weddings of Alessandro de' Medici and Margaret of Austria (1536), between Cosimo I and Eleanor of Toledo (1539), Francesco I and Bianca Cappello already his lover (1579). Bianca and Francesco also found death in this villa, for causes not fully clarified and suspected of poisoning.

In 1661 came to Florence Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, Cousin of Louis XIV and wife of Cosimo III. The princess, profoundly different from Cosimo's dark and ultra-religious character, and above all overwhelmed by the Grand Duke's Vittoria della Rovere, was actually relegated to Poggio a Caiano. In order to alleviate the "captivity", in addition to the follow-up of some 150 people, he built the theater on the ground floor before returning permanently to France in 1675.

There were often comedies in the theatrical theater and here he had assembled a very unique collection called the "Cabinet of Works in Small of All The Most Famous Painters". It was a picture gallery set in a single room of the villa, which contained 174 paintings of as many different painters, the largest of which measured 100x75 cm, and which included works by some of the most important authors, Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello Sanzio, Rubens and so on. Today it is no longer admirable because it was dissected in 1773 by Habsburg-Lorraine. The Cabinet Room was frescoed by Sebastiano Ricci with an "Allegory of the Arts", but this work has also been lost in subsequent renovations. The monumental organ of the Roman Lorenzo Testa (1703), already in Palazzo Pitti and today in the theater, is the result of Ferdinand's desire.

The necessary maintenance work and periodic restoration were carried out, though, according to their economic strategy, they intended to resize their landholdings: they began to no longer use some villas (such as the Ambrogiana and Lappeggi), bringing the furnishings into Palazzo Pitti and the surviving residences. Poggio a Caiano did not suffer this fate, and only a few furnishings testify to that period, such as the small wooden chest of drawers with inlays depicting views and landscapes. The architects Giuseppe and Giovan Battista Ruggeri cared for a general restoration, with the renovation of the theater and the affixing of a clock on the facade.

At the time of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, the park in front of the villa was equipped with some fun facilities: a "flying arcana", a swing, a "donkey rider" and a "carousel of horses", which are still stored in a store.

Concerts held at the theater of the villa included Giovanni Paisello, Etienne Nicolas Méhul and Gaspare Spontini. The frescoes of neoclassical Luigi Catani are in this hallway in the entrance hall on the first floor and in seventeen rooms of the villa, to which various guided artists collaborated Always from Catani.
Always on commission by Elisa Baciocchi, in 1811 Giuseppe Manetti designed new English Gardens, featuring irregular avenues, a pond, and small neoclassical pavilions, such as a conical glacier and a temple of Diana. The project was only completed later and partially.

With the restoration (1819) repairs and restoration work continued (especially in the garden where the lemonaia was built, solemn work by Pasquale Poccianti, and English park was completed.

In the 1828 the sundials were arranged on the sides of the building, while the interior of the villa was updated with fine furnishings from the royal palaces of Modena, Piacenza, Parma, Torino, Lucca and Bologna, into the heritage of the new unitary kingdom.

During the Second World War, the villa was used as a haven for bombing for important works of art from all over Tuscany, such as the statues of Michelangelo or Monument of the Four Moors of Livorno, etc. In addition, during the passage of the forehead, he took shelter for the displaced population who took refuge in the large underground subdivisions of this period:.

In 1984 it became a national museum and since then it has begun an important restoration cycle, where thanks to a precious inventory dated 1911, the interior of the villa was re-constructed as much as possible, recovering all the objects, furniture and artwork scattered among the various museums and state depots.

In the villa and in the gardens were filmed scenes of the movie Darling (1965) directed by John Schlesinger.

The restoration was concluded in 2007 with the opening to the public of the second floor, where the Museum of Still Life was housed, in which the great paintings of Bartolomeo Bimbi As well as other works from the Medici villas of Castello, Topaia, Ambrogiana Other superintendence deposits. Topaia, the Ambrogiana and other depots of the superintendence.

On the night of 6 March 2017, about 30 meters of the wall surrounding the villa grounds collapsed. Heavy rainfall had undermined its foundation.

The activity of researchers and restorers has now focused on the recovery to make it available to the public in other environments of the villa. Among them are the 17th-century "Cucinone" and the underground "Criptoportico" that link it to the villa. This environment is one of the best preserved examples of architecture tailored to the home needs of a court: it includes several rooms for laundry use and also a vegetable garden with aromatic herbs for use in kitchens. Along with the 'Ballroom Hall', once a playground, these rooms could be used for the exhibition of the eighteenth-century rides.

The roof was modified when in the 1575 Alfonso Parigi replaced the gutter, where there was a walkway and a crowning with a railing with fires, with a sloping roof, also obtaining an elevation of the prospect that alters significantly the proportions of Sangallo's initial project. The windows that were initially crossed, that is, divided into four parts with a kind of central stone cross, were modified, according to a late-fifteenth century model invented by Baccio d'Agnolo. In the seventeenth century, however, the clock tower was added in axis with the central pediment.

The triangle (white, blue and green) frieze that today is seen on the tympanum mantel on the main façade of the villa is a copy made in 1986 by the manufacturer Richard Ginori, while the original is in a room on the first floor of the villa. This work is 14 meters long and 22 feet long, 58 centimeters long, of uncertain attribution and dating. It is principally attributed to Andrea Sansovino regarding the construction phase of Lorenzo il Magnifico, as It refers to the theme of the return to the "Age of gold", or performed by Giuliano da Sangallo or Bertoldo. Two phases, the second of which ended at the time of Leo X.

The refined and emblematic theme could also represent the choice of souls according to Platonic myth. In any case, it is clear the nature of the expression of the complex initiatory climate, relating to the philosophical circle of Lorenzo, through a series of allegorical allegories, of evocative classicism.

The interior of the villa has undergone several transformations that have changed its original appearance over the years.

Behind the staircase, under the loggia surrounding the villa, where there are four Roman sarcophagi, you enter the apartments on the ground floor. This floor in the sixteenth century was considered still secondary to the noble floor, so the upgrading of these environments dates back mostly to the following centuries, with the exception of Bianca Cappello's apartments.

The entrance hall is plastered in A light yellow color and contains some inscriptions on Vittorio Emanuele II and the plebiscite that united Tuscany to the nascent Kingdom of Italy.

He subsequently entered the "Teatro delle Commedie", which was first created by 1675 Marguerite Louise d'Orleans the little-known wife of Cosimo III. It was in fact relegated to Poggio a Caiano, and to alleviate his reclusive life he thought to make a theater, of which we have the first mention in 1697. The use of the theater became more frequent with Prince Fernando.

The "Billiard Hall" is in the Savoyard style, with a frescoed ceiling as a pergola from which overlook cherubs and cupids while a cloth painting displays real signs of the House of Savoy.

To the right there is access to the Bianca Cappello apartments, where it is possible to perceive more clearly than elsewhere the Renaissance aspect of the villa. Bianca Cappello was a well-educated and sophisticated Venetian noblewoman who had a relationship with Grand Duke Francesco I. This secret relationship involving the ruler of the city, already married to Joanna of Austria, and a newly married woman, was one of the greatest scandals of the Renaissance and one of the most romantic pages of the Medici saga: even though the two lovers did everything to be covered, their story was a topic of rumors from the beginning.

In Poggio a Caiano their history lived some of the most important moments, in fact here was relegated the woman, hated by the family and the Medici court all deployed with the legitimate bride, strategically removed from Florence. At first she was confined to a secondary villa on the heights of Poggio a Caiano called "Il Cerretino", and on that occasion some popular fantasies arose, such as the existence of an underground corridor between the two villas that would allow the two lovers to meet secretly. With the death of Bianca's husband and Joanna, the two lovers could finally marry and spend at Poggio a Caiano some of the most beautiful moments of their married life. The Bianca Cappello apartments on the ground floor still testify to this connection with the villa. In the villa, the two of them also died in October 1587, one day away from the other: a 2004–2006 study speaks of arsenic intoxication in the tissues of the two, although it is not possible to understand whether it is a post-mortem treatment on some symbolic organs buried together in the Bonistallo Church. (The official chronicles speak of tertian fever.)

In the first hall of these apartments, a simple anteroom, there are three paintings on a biblical subject attributed to Paolo Veronese: "Moses and the Burning Bush", The "Passage of the Red Sea" and the "Resurrection of Lazarus"; Here after the restoration was also the "Pietà" of Giorgio Vasari, coming from the chapel of the villa that today belongs to the local mercy mission.

Following is the "room of the Camino" of the apartments of Bianca Cappello. The room, although eclecticly restored in the 19th century, still retains the beautiful white marble fireplace, with the floor supported by two telamons carved with remarkable plastic strength. The paternity of the work has not yet been clarified, but the scope of creation is surely close to Bernardo Buontalenti, as evidenced by the elusiveness of the torso and the imaginatively corrugated heads. Perhaps they are attributable to the Alfonso Parigi in the villa 1575, who was engaged by Cerreto Guidi at the Medici villa with Buontalenti during the same period.

A door at the same level leads to Bedroom of the Duchessa Bianca, covered with pressed papermaking, imitating the coramas (decorated leather panels) and neo-Renaissance furniture, the result of a complete reconstruction of the 1865 style (non-visitable).

The stone staircase in Pietra serena, connected to the fireplace, connect two upper openings in the same room, which communicate these rooms with the upper level, where today there is the room of King Vittorio Emanuele II and where it was probably that of Francesco I.

On the first floor is the most interesting environment of the villa: the Leo X saloon, placed in the middle of the building and finished around 1513. According to Vasari the decoration of the vault belongs only in part to Sangallo, the rest would be the work of Franciabigio and Cosimo Feltrini. Fresco decoration is one of the most important pictorial cycles of the Mannerism period.

On the first floor is the entrance hall (with monochrome paintings of the eighteenth century, by Luigi Catani, reproducing celebratory themes referring to the foundation of the Villa: the scenes depicted are "Lorenzo the Magnificent who receives the villa's model from Giuliano da Sangallo" and "Agnolo Poliziano who crowns with laurel the bust of Homer".

On the ceiling of the so-called "Dining Room" there is a large fresco, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, depicting the work of Cosimo The Elder, father of the homeland. The painting dates back to 1698 and was commissioned by Prince Ferdinando III de' Medici. This hall was also known as "Salone degli stucchi" but the stuccos in question, with portraits of Medici within medallions and other decorations, were removed in 1812 because they were considered too redundant. Only in some periods of the year is decorated the table with the "table carp" drawings designed by Agnolo Bronzino between the 1533 and 1548, beautifully woven with silk and filaments of gold and silver.

Completing the first floor is Vittorio Emanuele II's apartment with four rooms: Cloakroom, Studio, Reception Room and Bedroom, and that of Countess of Mirafiori, Rosa Vercellana, (the "Bella Rosina") consisting of three rooms with antique furniture. The Bella Rosina's room is decorated in particular with a four-poster bed and walls entirely covered with pink silk with floral motifs (1865), radiated draped so as to see a pre-existing neoclassical fresco at the center. The French bath, designed by the court architect Giuseppe Cacialli, was wanted by Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi and involved the demolition of some of the older rooms. Today it is well preserved, with its marble basin with carvings and a sculpture of "Venus and Love" in a niche, in addition to the original toiletries. The two mythological frescoes depict "Achilles immersed in the Lete River" and "Teti attends the departure of Achilles".

In 1807, Poccianti designed, in addition to the exterior stairs, the internal staircase connecting the ground floor to the remaining floors of the building was also commissioned for some restoration work on the upper floor of the villa. In the same period there are also fresco paintings in some saloons, of a strictly neoclassical style, with subjects drawn from ancient mythology.

The most ancient fresco of the villa, belonging to the period of Lorenzo the Magnificent, is the so-called "Sacrifice of Laocoön" (according to Halm's interpretation) by Filippino Lippi, kept under the loggia at the first floor, once detached for restoration and now relocated, though it is rather faded by weather. The fresco is quoted by Vasari as "A sacrifice, fresh, in a loggia that remained imperfect" and which would go back to before Lorenzo's death, or in any case completed by 1494.

The dominant theme of the first constructive phase Was the interpretation of the ancient in modern and decorative style and this fresco testifies to The kernel, as well as the frieze of the tympanum, maybe of Andrea Sansovino and the first decorated lunette in the salon of Leo X, that of Pontormo. Between 1519 and 1521, Depicts the Roman deities of Vertumnus and Pomona embedded in an unusual classical landscape.

Afterwards, the theme of decoration changed, probably due to the arrival in the house of the first noble titles of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, and became the illustrations of the glories of the Medici family, to which they clearly mentions the official themes of the paintings, that is, the "Stories of Roman History".
Between 1519 and 1521 he worked Andrea del Sarto, who painted the "Triumph of Caesar", an allusion to the gifts received by Lorenzo the Magnificent from the Sultan of Egypt in 1487. The fresco finished about one-third of the surface of the wall where nearer to the outer wall there was a large column painted in the wall, which was later removed and the fresco built by Alessandro Allori, who appointed his signature With that of Andrea del Sarto near the boy with the turkey in the foreground. By the time the frame of the primitive fresco was re-emerged, cutting the scene in two, but was again hidden by recent restorations.

More or less at the same time the Franciabigio realized in the wall diagonally opposite the "Return of Cicero From Exile", a clear metaphor of Cosimo The Elder and his expulsion with the subsequent triumphal return to Florence. This fresco is dominated at the top by fantastic architectures featured in a rich landscape in aerial perspective. This scene was also enlarged by Aldi, and the original border is hidden from the porphyry obelisk that rises unusually close to the center of the representation to the top of the painting. The painted column was partly preserved in the fresco, in fact, the Allori inserted it beside the obelisk.

Alessandro Allori was then the one who integrated it completed the decorative program of the Salon, and worked there between 1578 And 1582, more than fifty years after the commencement of the decorations of the other painters, was commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici, who lived in the villa in particular with his Venetian noblewoman Bianca Cappello. In addition to expanding the existing panels, he created two new ones: "Numidia's Syphace Receiving Scipione", alluding to the journey Lorenzo the Magnificent made to Naples at Ferdinand II of Aragon; The "Consul Flaminio speaks to the council of the Achaeans", in which he refers to the intervention of Lorenzo the Magnificent in the Dieta di Cremona.

He also frescoed, with numerous aids, the two boxes above the portals, the second bezel With the "Garden of the Hesperides" and the space between the lunettes and the windows and the lunettes. The elaborate and fantastic compositions with floral, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures are typical of the taste for the "whim" that is typical of the time.

Altori then created a magnificent architecture throughout the room, which almost contrasts with architecture realities, with figures that seem to be carved in their strong and crystalline colors typical of manierism, creating a magnificent and virtuoso scenery.

Completed the pictorial decoration a superb series of tapestries wanted by Cosimo I and his son Francesco, drawing on Stradano before, and Allori then. There were numerous hunting scenes depicted, taking the inspiration from the real jumps that were held in the huge park around the villa (far bigger than today). However, it is not possible to admire them as a whole because the collection is now dispersed among some Florentine museums, deposits and embassies abroad.

On the second floor, the "Museum of Still Life" is set up, which is unique in its kind and exhibits about 200 paintings dating from the late sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century and coming from the Medici collections. Many of these paintings, up to the opening of the Museum, were in the depots of the Polo Museale Fiorentino and other public bodies and thus largely visible to the general public for the first time. In a room there are 'papiers peints' of French manufacture, with an exotic theme of the early nineteenth century. The depicted views are wide-ranging with a line of low horizon and small characters depicting "Les sauvages de la Mer Pacifique" (1804).

The room Is dedicated to two important masterpieces of the Medici era recently restored: the imposing frieze that adorned the façade of the Villa and was commissioned by Lorenzo himself, and the precious tapestry of the Hunting Swan, one of 36 tapestries designed by Giorgio Vasari on commission of Cosimo I, especially for the Villa. Finally, though temporarily, the room is embellished with the 17th century painting of a beautiful family tree of the Medici family.

Adjacent to the Villa are some buildings such as the chapel, (where the "Pietà con i Santi Cosimo e Damiano", painted in 1560 Giorgio Vasari, waiting for restoration), housed on the ground floor of the south-east bastion; The "Cucinone" built at the beginning of the 17th century and the neoclassical cellar (or limonaia) "with anchored water retention", the work of Poccianti (1825). The "Hall of the Pallacorda" is a building at the corner of the garden, which dates back to the late eighteenth century to practice this game, and today houses the concierge and a store.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, under Cosimo I, Niccolò Tribolo rearranged the gardens and finished the construction of the stables (1548). The overall view of the garden and the stables after the Tribolo's intervention is in the famous lunette of Giusto Utens (1599) kept in Florence Museum.

The gardens around the villa date back to the nineteenth century and are very interesting.

Up until the 17th century, the villa's garden was quite simple compared to those of Castello or Petraia: garden areas and wooded areas with an Italian garden on the right, all without fountains and sculptural decorations, as appears from the painting of Giusto Utens. In the eighteenth century some areas of the garden were restored, extending the hunting ground, the so-called 'phagianaia'. In the Italian garden area, a fountain is placed in the center instead of a grove of trees, fed by a new water tank.

In 1813 Louis-Martin Berthault noted the desolation of the square in front of the villa and proposed to remedy the fact that the various highlights of the park, which would be vast, are actually isolated From the other: the villa and the backyard are adjacent, but the Italian garden is cut off from the road to Prato and Barco mediceo di Bonistallo (not to be confused with the much bigger "Barco Reale" placed on the Montalbano ridge), a hunting forest that still rises on the hill in front of the villa to the church of San Francesco, from the road to Pistoia; The "Pavoniere", in addition to the Cascine and still existing ones, are separated from the Ombrone river.

In order to remedy these disadvantages several steps were taken: the road to Prato was defeated, the numerous walls that separated the seating areas and unified in one fence were cut down, while on the square of the villa were made some serpentine driveways with Various vegetable decoration; The Umbrella course was straightened and a new ironable bridge was built to connect with Cascine di Tavola and Pavoniere. The garden thus came to be an irregular shape. The kitchens, the watercourse and the chapel were hidden by new tree groups.


When was Brewers Retail Inc founded?

Brewers Retail Inc., doing business as The Beer Store, is a Canadian privately owned chain of retail outlets selling beer and other malt beverages in the province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1927, it was owned at its inception by a consortium of Ontario-based brewers. It currently operates as a unique open retail and wholesale system primarily owned by 3 large multinational brewing companies. It is also partially owned (under 0.02%) by 30 Ontario-based brewers. Under the ownership model, all qualified brewers are free to list their products without discrimination and to set their own selling prices, subject to LCBO price approval that must comply with legislated minimum and uniform pricing requirements.

The Beer Store

Under Ontario's Liquor Control Act, The Beer Store was formerly the only retailer permitted to sell beer for off-site consumption, other than stores on the site of a brewery, locations of the provincial government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), and LCBO-authorized agency stores in certain smaller communities. The act and the company's articles of incorporation further stipulate that Brewers Retail cannot sell "hard liquor" (spirits) or consumer goods (like groceries).

Amendments made to the Liquor Control Act have since allowed for the sale of single and 6 packs of beer at select supermarkets in Ontario. That was done to enhance customer access and convenience. The Beer Store, however, continues to maintain pricing exclusivity in providing consumers discounts on larger packs of beer, along with retail partners, agency stores, combination stores and manufacturer outlets. What distinguishes the Beer Store is its characterization as a sort of "beer commons." A 2013 Angus Reid survey commissioned by the Ontario Convenience Stores Association found that only 13% of Ontario residents were aware that "The Beer Store monopoly is not a government-owned enterprise."

The Beer Store follows an open ownership model whereby any qualifying brewer is allowed the opportunity to become a Beer Store shareholder. Currently, the Beer Store is owned by a consortium of 30 Ontario based brewers. In order to qualify, the brewer must operate at least one facility in Ontario, conduct the full brewing process and sell beer through the corporation. Valid Ontario and Canadian manufacturing licenses are required and the brewer must not produce beer in any other jurisdiction, or else meet minimum annual capacity and production goals.

The Beer Store is governed by the Liquor Control Act (LCA) and is therefore regulated by the LCBO. As of December 2016, the company operates over 450 retail stores which sell beer to the general public. This makes The Beer Store (TBS) the largest distributor of domestic beer in Ontario, selling to over 20,723 licensed customers. Although many imported beers are available at the Beer Store, the LCBO serves as the primary importer. Once imported, the product is then sold to the Beer Store for further distribution. As the primary retailer of Ontario, The Beer Store sells more than 720 brands of beer and over 1,000 home consumer beer selling units from 180 different brewers around the world. Larger Beer Store outlets typically stock around 600 beer selling units with the smallest Beer Stores stocking around 200 units.

TBS has a policy of accepting any brewer in the world to sell its product, as long as the brewer meets the requirements set by the LCBO. Furthermore, unlike many other retailers, a brewer is given flexibility with regards to how many and which stores it would like to sell its product in. Because The Beer Store operates on a cost-recovery basis, listing fees for smaller breweries can be kept at a minimum. In 2016 TBS implemented a new lower tier rate for qualifying small brewers that is significantly less than the basic service rate paid by the larger brewing companies. Smaller breweries who produce under 1,000,000 hectoliters a year of beer qualify for this lower tier rate on their first 50,000 hectoliters of beer produced that year. Additionally, qualifying small brewers who produce under 10,000 hectoliters a year are now provided with 2 free guaranteed product listings at 7 of their most proximate Beer Stores.

Currently, workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 12R24 union.

The company began in 1927, with the end of prohibition in Ontario. Although prohibition had proven to be unsuccessful, the provincial government still needed to placate angry temperance advocates and agreed that beer would be sold through a single network of stores. However, the government did not want to operate this network itself (as was done in some other Canadian provinces), and so permitted brewers to organize the Brewers Warehousing Company Ltd., which later became Brewers Retail/The Beer Store.

The Beer Store operates on a self-sustaining basis as an efficient distributor and retailer of Beer in the Province of Ontario. Operations take place on a fee for service basis, requiring brewers to pay a fee to sell their products through the Beer Store. The Beer Store publishes an annual rate sheet outlining their necessary financial requirements and consistency with annual budget and business plans.

The open nature of the Beer Store combined with pricing freedom for individual brewers is claimed to have created a highly competitive beer pricing market. The Beer Store processes hundreds of price changes every month and the average retail selling price in the system has only increased 2.8% from 2003 to 2014 while the general rate of Ontario inflation over the same period was approximately 20%. Ontario’s uniform pricing regulation precludes price competition between beer retailers such as the LCBO and the Beer Store. Price competition between individual brewers and brands within the Beer Store system is claimed to be significant, but there is little real competition as there is little variance in price both over time and between brands of similar quality. The system does benefit remote areas in that lower priced products are not restricted to larger outlets in urban centers, but are available at all Beer Store locations throughout the province. Hence rural consumers benefit as much (or as little) as urban consumers.

The Beer Store states it operates as a not-for-profit entity. While this may be true, critics have argued that the TBS system is structured to support relatively high prices and profits of the breweries and the detriment of consumers. A series of studies, authored or co-authored by professor Anindya Sen of the University of Waterloo, estimated that the near-monopoly the Beer Store has in Ontario allows its owners to capture between $450 to $630 in “additional profits” each year.

The first of the Sen studies was commissioned by the Ontario Convenience Store Association and surveyed six 24-pack domestic brands from IGA and Metro Quebec flyers compared to the same brands at The Beer Store in Ontario over a 22 week period in 2013. Sen corrected tax analysis associated with the original study and added three import brands from a Costco in Quebec in subsequent analysis. Correcting for tax differentials between the two provinces, positive price differences of $1.3 - $3.3 were found to exist between their average price of 24-bottle packs of brands including Molson Canadian, Molson Dry, Coors Light, Budweiser and Bud Light. Using Molson Canadian as an example, the adjusted 24 pack price from Quebec IGA and Metro flyers was found to be $26.81 versus $28.12 for Ontario TBS locations.[16]

In response to Sen’s analysis, The Beer Store commissioned a survey of Quebec – Ontario beer pricing by Debra Aron, an economist with Navigant Economics, which reviewed average TBS home consumer beer prices for all of 2013 in comparison to all beer sales at Quebec seven largest grocery chains, utilizing Neilsen data, for the same period. Aron’s study concluded that the average TBS beer prices, excluding all taxes, were 18% less than those at Quebec grocery stores in 2013 or on a per case basis approximately $4.40 less per case of 24 cans.

Since 1927, the Beer Store has refunded deposits on all empty beer containers purchased in Ontario. In February 2007 the Ontario Deposit Return Program (ODRP) was launched by the Government of Ontario. The ODRP’s goal is to ensure that 100 per cent of all packaging sold at the LCBO follows the same path of all packaging sold at the Beer Store, to be reused or recycled. All alcoholic beverage containers (over 100ml) purchased in Ontario are accepted for deposit return at any Beer Store location that returns empty containers. ODRP continues to make a meaningful contribution to Ontario’s waste diversion objectives, with the return rate increasing more than 16 percentage points since its first year of operation in 2007. Between the ODRP and Blue Box, an estimated 63,909 additional tonnes of glass is being diverted from Ontario landfills. These materials continue to be directed toward higher-end recycling supporting Ontario’s green economy and generating environmental benefits. “This success means we have recycling factories making new products, instead of higher piles of waste in landfills,” said Jim Bradley, Ontario Minister of the Environment, in an April 2014 statement. As a result of the ODRP, Ontario is now the principal source of quality glass cullet for Ontario glass manufacturing – previously Ontario glass manufacturers had to source glass cullet from other jurisdictions to support production. In 2013-2014, the Beer Store and ODRP program combined, avoided 196,332 tonnes of GHG emissions - equivalent to taking over 41,333 cars and trucks off Ontario roads. Combined, these programs avoided over 2,694,461 gigajoules of energy - equivalent to over $41 million of oil (Note ($94.73/barrel and 6.1 GJ/barrel of oil).

Between 2013-2014, the Beer Store achieved a system-wide recovery and re-use rate of 99 per cent for the industry standard bottles, which are reused 12 to 15 times. The Beer Store has received praise from local and national organizations including the Conservation Council of Ontario, Environmental Defence Canada, The Recycling Council of Ontario, and Toronto Environmental Alliance.

TBS’ recycling efforts translate into cost savings for municipal governments as municipalities need not spend tax revenue on recycling packaging that TBS sells. In 2008, TBS estimated that its return program has saved taxpayers $38 million in avoided waste management and recycling program costs per year. In 2012, the TBS estimated that savings had increased to $40 million with 94% of beer containers and 81% of LCBO containers recycled.

The Beer Store also is actively engaged in reducing its carbon footprint by finding innovative ways to reduce its energy consumption, a key input for any retail organization, especially one with a need to constantly refrigerate its product. A notable initiative is the use outside air to cool beer when outside temperatures provide for such a tactic.

Pierre Sadik, Senior Policy Adviser at the David Suzuki Foundation has stated, "Ontarians should be proud of The Beer Store's environmental achievements. It's time businesses across the province follow The Beer Store's lead and turn their talk about waste diversion into real action."

TBS maintains a strict policy of “ID 25” and the right to refuse any customer who appears intoxicated or who is underage. Furthermore, TBS empowers its retail management to actively monitor and track every employee’s refusal rate to ensure proper conformance to company policy. In 2017, TBS employee challenge and refusal rates are the following:

RETAIL BEER CHALLENGES AND REFUSALS CY17 | Jan, 2017 – Dec, 2017The Beer Store works closely with Police agencies across Ontario to report suspected impaired driving. Also Retail employees will work with the customer in finding other means of transportation(cab/transit/call a friend) home if suspected they are impaired and refused service, they go the extra step to make sure the customer will arrive alive and not just let them find a way home.

Since 2006 The Beer Store, UFCW Local 12R24 (the union representing its employees), and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada have partnered together to help raise awareness and funds for blood cancer research through the collection of empty bottles.
The bottle drive is formally called "Returns for Leukemia" but many refer to it as the "Leukemia Bottle Drive". It is held on the last Saturday of May and is also the world's largest bottle drive. Over the last 13 years, through donations of cash and empties, the event has raised over $15 million for the cause.

The Beer Store employees are not allowed to recommend one brand over another. Staff can tell customers about the products but cannot encourage customers to choose a specific brand. This policy is known as brewer neutrality.
The Beer Store is permitted to charge non-shareholding breweries listing fees, for each beer carried in stock, that many critics perceive as substantial. Listing fees have been criticized as restricting competition in the huge Ontario beer market, especially from smaller brewers who often cannot afford the fees, especially for multiple brands.

Some Canadian provinces have since allowed privately owned stores to compete for sales of beer and wine while retaining tighter controls over the sale of spirits, while Alberta has privatized all retail liquor stores. In Ontario no changes have been made, and The Beer Store continues to sell over 80% of the beer sold in the province, and is the only entity legally allowed to sell 12-packs, 24-packs, and other large cases. The Beer Store has only limited competition for retail sales of 6-packs and singles with the government-owned LCBO, select supermarkets, and individual brewer retailers, located on-site at most Ontario breweries. Furthermore, the competition is only with respect to location, as prices between supermarkets, LCBO and TBS are kept uniform. Many critics say this constitutes a foreign-owned monopoly.

With regards to distribution, TBS operates its own fleet and provides service to over 16,000 licensed establishments in Ontario. TBS also delivers beer to Beer Stores on behalf of brewers who may choose to avoid the high cost of self-distributing. Critics have stated that TBS does not provide any credit terms for licensed clients, forcing them to pay cash on delivery, causing friction between TBS and the hospitality industry. However, TBS does provide credit terms and flexible payment options for customers. Customers may receive up to seven days of credit terms.

Critics say TBS constitutes a foreign-owned monopoly over retail beer sales in Ontario, costing the consumer more in the long run in terms of convenience and price. Critics also state that if retail beer sales were opened up, then the average price to the consumer would drop due to competition within the marketplace. TBS has argued that the price of beer will increase if privatization occurs and points to the situations of BC and Alberta as prime examples. In an independent report titled “Alcohol Retailing Deregulation: Implications for Ontario” by economist Greg Flanagan, it was demonstrated that the general consequence of deregulating the sale of alcohol is an increase in average sale price. Since Alberta’s deregulation of alcohol in 1993, their retail alcohol prices have since tripled Ontario’s (28.2% vs 9.2%). By accounting for tax differentials and comparing the average (non-sale) 24 pack cost of beer between BC, Alberta, Quebec and Ontario, the report concludes stating that Ontarians are well served under the current regulated model.

The Beer Store has been subject to criticism following the Molson-Coors merger, whose 49% stake in TBS was the last 100% Canadian-owned share of the venture under the pre-merger Molson Breweries. In 2005, Ontario's alcohol laws were reviewed and proposals to allow the sale of beer in grocery and convenience stores were put forth. A report called the Beverage Alcohol System Review was released on March 24, 2005 by the Ontario Government. However, the report’s findings dealt centrally with the LCBO and the economic and social impact of its privatization.

An online petition was started by a private citizen, Derek Forward, to ask the provincial government to end the monopoly enjoyed by the Beer Store. The petition has received coverage in the Toronto Star, and has generated enough support to allow it to be formally presented to the provincial legislature in the fall of 2008 for consideration (petition No. P–146: "Practice and arrangement of retailing beer"). However, on December 9, 2008, the Ontario government dismissed the petition citing the effectiveness of the TBS system.

At the start of the 2007 provincial election campaign, The Brick Brewing Company of Waterloo made headlines when it claimed The Beer Store engaged in a number of discriminatory practices and policies, such as restrictions on price advertising, for causing a decline in company sales. TBS representatives denied that their policies are hurting small brewers and implicitly questioned the timing of the Brick Brewing Company's statement, suggesting that in their view it is unethical for a brewery to use an electoral campaign to forward self-interests. Additionally, Brick claimed that TBS allegedly used monopolistic tactics to force what is now Ontario's largest independent brewer to stop offering beer in "Stubbies" by withholding supplies of industry standard "long-necked" bottles. The Beer Store claimed that Brick signed an agreement in 1992 to use the industry standard bottle and Brick said it never signed such an agreement. This dispute was settled out of court with the terms of the settlement undisclosed. Brick has since stopped selling beer in "stubbies" because the cost was too high.

A July 2008 Toronto Star article attributed an industry analyst as estimating the three foreign entities that owned TBS earned $1 billion in profit per year in Canada.

Ontario Craft Brewers is the main lobby group for Ontario's smaller brewers, and has been increasingly critical of BRI/TBS. The 29 OCB members currently employ several thousand Ontarians. OCB wants to either acquire shares in TBS or be permitted to set up their own competing chain. Premier McGuinty responded by saying that his government would not consider any application to form a competing chain, and that his government would not consider compelling TBS shareholders to sell any shares, although some Liberal and Conservative backbenchers have said they would expect BRI to at least negotiate in good faith with craft brewers who made a serious offer. BRI responded by saying that it was not considering and would not consider selling shares at any price, and that they do more than enough to accommodate non-shareholding brewers already. Canada's National Brewers (the lobby group that represents the BRI shareholders) further said that in the event OCB did get to set up a competing chain, they would refuse to stock their products there.

In February 2012, the website "Canadian Beer News" reported that The Beer Store has made thousands of dollars worth of political donations to the British Columbia Liberal Party and British Columbia New Democratic Party. The report noted that it was odd for an Ontario-based company to be making such large donations to political parties in another province, and suggested that the co-owning breweries were funneling this money through The Beer Store in an attempt to put pressure on the BC government to give their brands favourable placements in BC Liquor stores.

On December 9, 2014, Toronto Star investigative journalist Martin Regg Cohn exposed an agreement between The Beer Store and the LCBO to limit competition and the products offered to Ontario beer drinkers. The document of June 1, 2000, provided to him by a whistleblower, entitled “Serving Ontario Beer Consumers — Framework for Improved Co-operation and Planning Between the LCBO and BRI", was signed by then head of the LCBO Andy Brandt and head of BRI Daver Perkins, of which a copy was sent to Ministry of Consumer & Commercial Relations Deputy Minister Sandra Lang.

The agreement ensured that the LCBO would not offer beer products in large format sizes, being cases of 12 or 24 beers, it would not sell major brands to restaurants or bars, and would inform the Beer Store of any store it was planning to open in a new community.
Regg Cohn says both retail consumers and the food and beverage industry are being gouged by this non-competitive business agreement. Former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark, in a 2014 report to the government on maximizing assets, says that the LCBO (and the Government of Ontario) forgoes $515 million of revenue by not allowing sales of larger format beer packages and forgoes $500 million of revenue by not selling major brands to restaurants.

Andy Brandt, former highly successful head of the LCBO, is very critical of the agreement, and says it was forced upon him by the then Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government. When Regg Cohn questioned the Beer Store representatives about the agreement, suggesting it is collusion, the reply from the BRI lawyer Michael A. Eizenga of Bennett Jones LLP stated the "use of the term 'collusion' which has significant legal meaning," and "This is an inaccurate and inappropriate characterization, to which my client objects."

Liberal Finance Minister Charles Sousa, in response to these revelations, says he has "got the investigation underway" and that "I'm trying to ensure that what you’re suggesting doesn’t happen any further... You're right, there's a monopoly, a duopoly, oligopoly — call it what you will."

On December 10, 2014, Restaurants Canada filed an official complaint with the Competition Bureau. "'We did not know the depth of the complicity,' it said, pointing to 'new and disturbing information' in the Star that detailed price gouging of restaurants and bars forced to buy from The Beer Store... A Competition Bureau spokesperson said it is'reviewing it to determine whether the conduct in question could raise concerns under the criminal or civil provisions in the Competition Act.'"

On April 15, 2015, Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne announced changes to provincial liquor laws that would, among other changes, allow up to 450 supermarkets in "urban population centres" (roughly equating the number of Beer Store locations) to be authorized to sell beer subject to conditions, require The Beer Store to improve the placement and marketing of Ontario craft brews, and allow LCBO locations to trial carrying 12-packs. Wynne stated that The Beer Store had become a "de-facto monopoly controlled by a small number of companies". The new regulations took effect on December 15, 2015 with 58 designated supermarkets, and additional locations to be added in the future; all products must be below 7.1% alcohol by volume, and at least 20% of a store's stock must be Ontario craft brews. Loblaw Companies elected to go beyond the minimum quota and committed to stock 50% Ontario craft brews at its participating stores, in an effort to provide a wider array of options.

While the sale of beer in supermarkets has increased availability to consumers, it has done nothing to increase competition or lower prices for consumers. Beer prices in supermarkets are dictated by the LCBO, to the point that the LCBO, and not the supermarket, inputs beer prices into store computer check-out systems. Those prices are kept in line with LCBO and TBS prices. Depending on and accounting for the exchange rate at time of purchase, it can cost 25-40% less to buy a 24 pack of Ontario brewed beer at a New York State supermarket than it will cost anywhere in Ontario. It should be noted that current Ontario beer commodity taxes are currently a $11.30 per case compared to New York’s beer excise tax of $0.41 per case. Federal beer excise tax and sales taxes are also higher in Ontario.

In the 1980s, Brewers Retail published a directory of its retail locations in a booklet with a small map to each location. It had a picture of an animal, (a penguin, for example) on the covers. The booklet when closed was approximately. The 1972 version issued by Brewers Retail had cartography by Rand McNally.

In the film "Strange Brew" the McKenzie Brothers visit a Brewers Retail store demanding a refund after they attempt to return a bottle of beer that contained a mouse (the mouse was however placed in the bottle by the brothers). Due to the nature of the scene, Brewers Retail refused to allow the use of one of their actual stores for the filming, and also refused to allow the use of the name "Brewers Retail". In response, the filmmakers built their own replica store, and called it "The Beer Store". Coincidentally, several years later, Brewers Retail changed the name of its stores to "The Beer Store", and they continue to operate under this name.

The Beer Store was also showcased in episodes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" during O'Brien's week-long tenure in Toronto during the week of February 10, 2004.

Brewers' Distributor Ltd. (BDL) operates in Western Canada and is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson-Coors (Sleeman has its own distribution operation in the West). Unlike BRI, BDL only warehouses and distributes beer and is not in the retail business.

The Beer Store

Currently, workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 12R24 union.

Between 2013-2014, the Beer Store achieved a system-wide recovery and re-use rate of 99 per cent for the industry standard bottles, which are reused 12 to 15 times. The Beer Store has received praise from local and national organizations including the Conservation Council of Ontario, Environmental Defence Canada, The Recycling Council of Ontario, and Toronto Environmental Alliance.

The Beer Store also is actively engaged in reducing its carbon footprint by finding innovative ways to reduce its energy consumption, a key input for any retail organization, especially one with a need to constantly refrigerate its product. A notable initiative is the use outside air to cool beer when outside temperatures provide for such a tactic.

Pierre Sadik, Senior Policy Adviser at the David Suzuki Foundation has stated, "Ontarians should be proud of The Beer Store's environmental achievements. It's time businesses across the province follow The Beer Store's lead and turn their talk about waste diversion into real action."

TBS maintains a strict policy of “ID 25” and the right to refuse any customer who appears intoxicated or who is underage. Furthermore, TBS empowers its retail management to actively monitor and track every employee’s refusal rate to ensure proper conformance to company policy. In 2017, TBS employee challenge and refusal rates are the following:

A July 2008 Toronto Star article attributed an industry analyst as estimating the three foreign entities that owned TBS earned $1 billion in profit per year in Canada.

Liberal Finance Minister Charles Sousa, in response to these revelations, says he has "got the investigation underway" and that "I'm trying to ensure that what you’re suggesting doesn’t happen any further... You're right, there's a monopoly, a duopoly, oligopoly — call it what you will."

In the 1980s, Brewers Retail published a directory of its retail locations in a booklet with a small map to each location. It had a picture of an animal, (a penguin, for example) on the covers. The booklet when closed was approximately. The 1972 version issued by Brewers Retail had cartography by Rand McNally.

The Beer Store was also showcased in episodes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" during O'Brien's week-long tenure in Toronto during the week of February 10, 2004.

Brewers' Distributor Ltd. (BDL) operates in Western Canada and is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson-Coors (Sleeman has its own distribution operation in the West). Unlike BRI, BDL only warehouses and distributes beer and is not in the retail business.