re: OT Ballers: Joe Montana is selling his 500 acre estate + mansion in Napa for $28 million

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I thought the same thing . My guess is that all those 500 acres are locked up in a land trust and cannot be planted nor developed. It’ll be raw land forever.

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Football great Joe Montana is giving up his castle—a roughly 500-acre European-style estate in California wine country—for $28.9 million, or 41% less than he first sought a decade ago.

Mr. Montana and his wife Jennifer Montana initially sought $49 million, which was a reference to his years playing for the San Francisco 49ers and intended as a starting point for negotiations, Mr. Montana said. Ms. Montana said they decided to take the property off the market shortly after because their four children, now adults, begged them to keep it a few more years. Mr. Montana said the family was advised this time around to price a little more conservatively.

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Completed in the early 2000s, the Montanas’ 9,700-square-foot, three-bedroom home has lots of European details, including a small moat and bridge out front. Inspired by the monasteries and historic villas the couple saw while traveling around Europe, it also includes two turreted towers, elaborate wood-beamed and vaulted ceilings, carved statues, tapestries and large fireplaces, including one featuring a fresco of the Montana family crest. Much of the interior was imported from Europe; a Parisian marble bathtub from the family’s home in Atherton was installed using a crane.

Ms. Montana said she and her husband spent about five years designing and building the house. They scoured stone yards, auction houses and flea markets across Italy and France, scooping up old marble floors, 16th-century iron gates, a 17th-century church altar surround and an antique well for the garden.

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At one point, the couple considered operating a vineyard,

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