The villa, built during the 1700s, now has six rooms used as B&B accommodation and a trullo, which is a separate flat used as a holiday home.

The villa was initially owned and maintained by the Martinelli family, but later the inheritance passed into the hands of a woman, married to a Meo- Evoli, so the villa took the name Meo - Evoli.
It was built at the behest of the Salerno nobleman Vito Giuseppe Martinelli (1758- 1833), who was the first of the family to move from Mola to Monopoli, where he set up the trade of cloth, silk ware and the buying and selling of oil and wine. Oral tradition has it, however, that the lineage is of distant Venetian origin.
The exuberance of agricultural production at the time (cereal, olive, wine) led to the presence of noble owners on the site, who boosted the land economy, which allowed the building of their elegant residences.

The villa still has the typical connotation of a house as a place for socialising.
Even the furnishings inside the villa, all original and Rococo in style, while not renouncing frivolity, bend to the needs of comfort and conviviality.

The loggia and the garden compensate for the settings depicted by the frescoes in the barrel vaults and on the walls where naturalistic subjects bring levity and moderation in colour.
The rooms before were all communicating and the frescoes inside them, all original and from the late 18th century, expressed a way of painting that was a way of communication for the painters of the time. The rooms, on the other hand, feature frescoes and roundels from the 1800s.

The garden, which can be admired by looking out from the loggia of the villa and passing through the imposing gate at the entrance to the villa, is a reproduction of the Italian garden.
In the Italian style, the garden is rich in essences, fountains, sculptures (both medieval and 18th century), as well as archaeological finds.
The architecture of the garden was designed in such a way that the water, falling from the higher 'fontana del Bacchetto', gushed into all the other seven fountains. In this way, an atmosphere typical of Italian and undoubtedly French gardens of the neo-classical period was recreated amidst the greenery of the plants, the marble sculptures and the swish of the water.
Currently, the garden of Villa Meo - Evoli is part of the museum system of the Municipality of Monopoli as it is considered a unique work in the whole of Apulia.
There are also depictions of the garden inside the villa: they are reproduced on some of the walls of the building, with perfect hedges, statues and fountains and columns in the Ionic style, which are the same columns we find on the façade of the villa.
Finally, in the roundels of a double room, we find the depiction of a Vesuvius, as the Martinelli family owned land in the Neapolitan area and in the town of Ostuni; a vast territorial extension that stretched from Mola di Bari to Ostuni. Finally, we find the depiction of Villa Meo Evoli, formerly a grey villa.
Finally, there is a splendid museum inside the villa.
Francesco Paolo Martinelli, a man of great culture as well as a politician and legislator, a lover of the arts and especially of sculpture, built the Villa Meo Evoli Museum in 1837. He made his collection available to those, scholars and non-scholars, who would like to deepen their knowledge and benefit from viewing these works.
On a plaque on the museum door, the following inscription can be read:

"OF THE CELEBRITY OF HISTORY AND FABLE
TO BELOVED MEN OF KNOWLEDGE
IN THIS TEMPLE THE MEMORY TO DEFEND
FRANCESCO PAOLO MARTINELLI GAVE WORK
IN THE YEAR OF GOD MDCCCXXXVII".

CREDITS: Comune di Monopoli.