KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Villa Collina, one of Knoxville's biggest and most extravagant mansions, is now a pile of debris.
In October 2020, new owners bought the property for around $6.5 million. They said they planned to tear it down and subdivide the land it sat on into three lots. It sat on a 40,000-square-foot lot with stunning water and mountain views.
The items inside the mansion were auctioned off in the days leading to its destruction. Buyers effectively picked the mansion clean, purchasing everything from its doorknobs to the columns that once held it up.
Now, hardly anything is left of the building. Metal beams lay exposed to the elements, while holes mark spots in the few remaining wall. Piles of debris sit on the land where over-the-top rooms filled with expensive decor were built. Demolition equipment drives around the area, ripping up the mansion bit by bit.
There is still demolition work to do before the new owners can start building up the property for the new homes. Information about when that work would start was not immediately available.