Berlusconi’s Old Sardinian Villa, Complete With A Secret Cave And Artificial Volcano, Sells For $395 Million

Villa Certosa, the sprawling Sardinian estate long associated with former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has a new owner. Qatari billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, widely known as HBJ and a former prime minister of Qatar himself, has completed the purchase for around €350 million, close to $395 million, according to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. The estate had originally been listed for €500 million, about $571 million.

Forbes estimates HBJ’s personal fortune at nearly $5 billion. He already owns luxury hotels and historic European properties through his company, Constellation Hotels, and plans to add Villa Certosa to that portfolio as a resort rather than a private residence.

The property itself explains the price. Spread across roughly 120 hectares of Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, Villa Certosa is larger than Vatican City, about the size of 83 football pitches. Its main house alone covers 4,500 square metres with 126 rooms, designed by architect Gianni Gamondi.

Berlusconi’s additions over the years gave the estate a reputation for extravagance: a football pitch, tennis and bocce courts, a private golf course, a helipad, a Greek-style amphitheatre and seven swimming pools, including a five-pool seawater thalassotherapy section. Artificial lakes on the property come with small islands, swans and a floating tiki bar.

Privacy features go further still, including a hidden grotto reachable only by boat through an underground tunnel and a bunker with an anti-nuclear shelter, alongside a mechanical artificial volcano capable of a simulated eruption. Running it all costs around €8 million a year, and the estate carries a €94 million mortgage plus its own private desalination plant for water.