Qatari Royal Pays $395 Million For A Sardinian Estate Bigger Than Vatican City, Complete With A Fake Volcano

A property famous for its sheer excess has changed hands. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, Qatar’s billionaire former prime minister known as HBJ, has bought Villa Certosa, the Sardinian estate built up over decades by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. The reported price is around €350 million, about $395 million, down from an original €500 million ($571 million) ask.

At around 120 hectares, Villa Certosa is larger than Vatican City and about the size of 83 football pitches. The main residence covers 4,500 square metres and holds 126 rooms, designed by architect Gianni Gamondi, with additional guest buildings and greenhouses scattered across the grounds.

Berlusconi added a long list of unusual features during his ownership: a regulation football pitch, tennis and bocce courts, a private golf course, a helipad, a spa and a Greek-style amphitheatre. Instead of a single pool, the estate has seven, including a five-pool seawater thalassotherapy area, plus artificial lakes with small islands, resident swans and a floating tiki bar.

Some additions were built purely for privacy. A hidden grotto carved into the seaside hillside lets guests arrive by boat through an underground tunnel, avoiding photographers, alongside a bunker that includes an anti-nuclear shelter. The estate even has a working artificial volcano, engineered to simulate an eruption on demand.

Upkeep runs to around €8 million a year, including a €1.3 million electricity bill and a €94 million mortgage, and the property needs its own desalination plant for water. HBJ, whose company Constellation Hotels already runs luxury properties across Europe, plans to turn Villa Certosa into a resort rather than keep it as a private home.