Behind Palazzo Pitti
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The Boboli Gardens is a historic park in the city of Florence. Born
as the grand ducal garden of Palazzo Pitti, it is also connected to the
Forte di Belvedere, a military outpost for the safety of the sovereign
and his family. The garden, which welcomes over 800,000 visitors every
year, is one of the most important examples of Italian garden in the
world and is a real open-air museum, due to the architectural-landscape
setting and the collection of sculptures, which ranging from Roman
antiquity to the 20th century. The Boboli Gardens is one of the most
famous gardens of the peninsula.
The gardens were built between
the 16th and 19th centuries by the Medici, then by the Habsburg-Lorraine
and the Savoys, and occupy an area of about 45,000 m². Over the years,
new portions with different settings were added to the first layout of
the late Renaissance style, visible in the nucleus closest to the
building: along the axis parallel to the building, the perspective axis
of the viottolone was born, from which paths covered with gravel which
lead to ponds, fountains, nymphaeums, small temples and caves.
Remarkable is the importance that the statues and buildings assume in
the garden, such as the eighteenth-century Kaffeehaus (rare example of
rococo style in Tuscany), which allows you to enjoy the view over the
city, or the lemon house, still in the original Lorraine green colour.
The garden has four entrances accessible to the public (from the
Ammannati courtyard of Palazzo Pitti, from the Forte di Belvedere, from
via Romana, known as the Annalena entrance, and from the piazzale di
Porta Romana), in addition to the exit through piazza Pitti.
The first purchases of property in the Oltrarno by Cione di
Bonaccorso Pitti date back to 1341. The origin of the name "Boboli"
perhaps stems from a popular contraction of the surname of the Borgolo
or Borgoli family, which had possessions in this territory of the people
of Santa Felicita in Oltrarno, and which in turn probably took its name
from the "borgo", that is, that nucleus of houses that unfolded along
the direction of the Ponte Vecchio, before the area was included in the
walls.
These lands therefore came into the hands of Luca Pitti in
1418, forty years before starting the construction of the building which
took his name from his family. With the transfer of ownership to the
Medici in 1549, for the purchase of the palace and annexes by Eleonora
di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, the embellishment and expansions
began, which also involved the garden. The architect of the green space
was initially Niccolò Tribolo, who ten years earlier had already worked
superbly on the gardens of the Medici Villa of Castello.
Tribolo
left a project to which the amphitheater obtained from the excavation of
the hill is almost certainly attributed, with the first perspective
north-west / south-east axis, a natural extension of the Ammannati
courtyard, between the palace and the future Forte di Belvedere . The
pietraforte used to build Palazzo Pitti was in fact taken from this
basin, which is therefore artificial. Tribolo died shortly thereafter in
1550, so the direction of the works passed to Bartolomeo Ammannati and
later to Bernardo Buontalenti. A view of the garden at the end of the
sixteenth century can be found in one of the lunettes of the Medici
villas of the Giusto Utens series (about 1599), formerly in the villa of
Artimino and now preserved in the villa of Petraia.
During the
government of Cosimo II (1609-1621) the garden underwent the most
important enlargement, almost tripling its extension by Giulio Parigi
and his son Alfonso, creators of the second axis towards Porta Romana
(the so-called Viottolone). The garden was opened to the public for the
first time, albeit with due limitations, during the reign of Peter
Leopold of Lorraine. In June 2013 it became a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
Overall, the gardens have a vaguely elongated triangular
configuration, with steep slopes and two almost perpendicular axes that
cross near the Fountain of Neptune which stands out against the
panorama. Starting from the central paths of the axes, a series of
terraces, avenues and paths develop, perspective views with statues,
paths, clearings, enclosed gardens, buildings and ancient rose bushes,
in an inexhaustible source of curious and scenographic environments.
Here we also find the Mostaccini fountain whose sequence of
waterfalls is a seventeenth-century testimony of the ancient drinking
troughs for decoy birds, used in the practice of fowling. There are also
a series of ancient underground aqueducts that fed the entire complex.
A part of the garden is dedicated to the collection of Camellias,
which began in the seventeenth century and which today, thanks to the
work of the gardeners, has been partially recovered after a period of
decline. Between 2000 and 2005 the Tepidarium of the Upper Botany was at
the center of a series of restoration and cleaning interventions of the
external and internal environments to make the building functional
again. Some of these interventions were also carried out thanks to funds
from the Lotto game, on the basis of the provisions of law 662/96.
Amphitheater
The main axis, centered on the rear facade of the
building, climbs the Boboli hill through a deep horseshoe-shaped
amphitheater.
The amphitheater marks the point where the Boboli
hill was excavated to take the strong stone used to build Palazzo Pitti
and the idea of arranging it in a large space, which in plan draws the
shape of a bell, dates back to Tribolo, who however he had probably
conceived this area as green architecture divided by evergreen groves.
It was only enriched by the steps in 1599, while the aedicules with
marble statues in the ancient style and the terracotta urns were
designed by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi the younger starting between 1630
and 1634. The structure was inaugurated in 1637 on the occasion of the
coronation of Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinando II de' Medici,
as Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
At the center there was once the
Ocean Fountain, which in the 17th century was moved to the south-west
end of the garden (on the Isolotto), so as to make it possible to use
the amphitheater for representations, according to the fashion at the
time in great vogue of theatrical performances.
The center of the
amphitheater was embellished in 1790 by the Egyptian obelisk, the only
one in Tuscany, as well as one of the oldest monuments in the whole
region: it dates back to 1500 BC. (long before the flowering of the
Etruscan civilization) and comes from Heliopolis in Egypt. It was
brought to Rome from Egypt at the time of Domitian and erected in the
Temple of Isis in the Campo Marzio; after being unearthed at the end of
the sixteenth century, it ended up in the garden of Villa Medici in
Rome. It was transported to Florence in 1788 by the will of the Grand
Duke Pietro Leopoldo, when he gathered all the Medici collections in the
city to embellish his palaces.
In 1840 it was coupled with the
large gray granite basin carved in a single block and perhaps coming
from the Alessandrine Baths in Rome.
From the amphitheater you
can enjoy a beautiful perspective of the back of the building, with the
wings arranged around the Ammannati courtyard and the Artichoke
fountain.
Neptune basin
Further up, beyond the amphitheater, you come to the basin of
Neptune, through a double ramp decorated with three statues from the
Roman era: a Septimius Severus on the left, a Roman Magistrate on the
right (each on a funerary stone), and in the center a Demeter on a Roman
base. Demeter is a Roman copy of a Greek original probably by Alcamenes,
a pupil of Phidias.
The Neptune basin was created in 1777-1778 in
place of a nursery. Here the waters that irrigate the whole garden are
collected and that have their source further upstream, under the Garden
of the Knight.
At the center of the basin stands the Fountain of
Neptune, with the statue of the God of the sea emerging from a rocky
outcrop on which there are also naiads and tritons. The main statue is
the work of 1571 by the sculptor Stoldo Lorenzi and the fountain is
called by the irreverent Florentines the "Fountain of the pitchfork" or
"of the fork" due to the trident held by Neptune in the act of striking.
Around the fountain there are sloping grassy terraces, which reproduce
the shape of the amphitheater below.
At the top of this area is
the statue of Abundance (1636) by Pietro Tacca (with the collaboration
of Sebastiano Salvini), already begun by Giambologna in 1608. It is a
work in white marble with a sheaf of wheat in gilded bronze. The figure
has the appearance of Joanna of Austria, wife of Francesco I de' Medici,
and was commissioned as a shrine for the unfortunate grand duchess who
died in an accident in the palace in 1578 at the age of only thirty-two.
Initially the statue was intended for a commemorative column for Piazza
San Marco, which was never built.
In this upper area, the garden
is characterized by the defensive walls that extend from the nearby
Forte Belvedere, which stands out on the left. To mitigate the view of
the boundary wall there are numerous trees, hedges and a great variety
of plants which create some picturesque paths.
In 1933 the
representation of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) took place
there conducted by Fernando Previtali and directed by Max Reinhardt with
Carlo Lombardi, Cele Abba, Giovanni Cimara, Nerio Bernardi, Rina
Morelli, Sarah Ferrati, Cesare Bettarini, Armando Migliari, Ruggero
Lupi, Luigi Almirante, Giuseppe Pierozzi, Memo Benassi, Evi Maltagliati
and Eva Magni.
At the top of this axis, in a staggered position towards the south
and with the city walls marking its boundary, stands the Giardino del
Cavaliere, one of the enclosed gardens of Boboli, which is located
exactly above a bastion that was part of the fortifications built by
Michelangelo in 1529 before the city siege the following year. In
military architecture, a knight was called a structure built above
(precisely, on horseback) a bastion and from this derives the name of
the garden. To access it, you go up a pincer staircase, that is, curved
and crossed ramps with a small terrace built above a small circular
room; this stairway was designed by Zanobi del Rosso between 1790 and
1793.
The two statues that decorate the staircase depict Flora
and young Jupiter both by Giovanni Battista Caccini.
The garden
is decorated with low box hedges that create geometric shapes and
contain rare and fragrant species of dahlias and roses, which bloom
between May and June. The central fountain is called the Monkey Fountain
due to the three bronze monkeys at the base of the fountain itself, by
Giambologna; in the center of the basin, water gushes from a marble
putto, attributed to Pierino da Vinci or Tribolo.
Here is the
casino del Cavaliere, a small building built around 1700 on commission
from Cosimo III, where Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici held artistic and
literary conversations, and where Gian Gastone had his retreat.
The sober current forms, with the walls decorated with painted frames
and the cornice adorned with terracotta vases and statues, are due to
the arrangement by Zanobi del Rosso on behalf of the Lorraines, who used
it as a venue for the summer celebrations of the court. It has been home
to the Porcelain Museum since 1973.
The privileged position that
dominated the back of the Boboli hill still offers gentle panoramic
views up to the Torre del Gallo, with the agricultural land partly
cultivated with olive trees.
Under the Casino del Cavaliere there
is a large water deposit called the trout deposit, from which the pipes
for the irrigation of the whole garden depart.
Coffeehouse
Going back down the hill to the north-east, more or
less at the height of the statue of Abundance, you reach the Kaffeehaus,
a Rococo-style pavilion covered by an exotic dome with windows and
marked by string course terraces by Zanobi del Rosso (1776) , at the
base of which, surrounded by a double pincer staircase, is a small cave.
The building, in a highly panoramic point, also represents the visual
vanishing point of the Viottolone, the large avenue which represents the
second axis of the expansion of the garden, which ideally led to the
Medici Villa of Poggio Imperiale. From here, continuing north, one
arrives at the entrance to Forte Belvedere, at the foot of the defensive
ramparts, which also gives access to the Bardini Garden and Costa San
Giorgio.
Meadow of Ganymede
In front of the Kaffeehaus is the
sloping lawn with the 17th century Ganymede Fountain in the centre.
Madam's Garden
Also on this side, further to the left, is the
Grotticina della Madama or delle Capre, built by Davide Fortini to a
design by Niccolò Tribolo. Decorated with sponges, stalactites and a
marble basin surmounted by four statues of goats that once threw water.
The grotto is located at one end of the so-called Garden of Madama, with
some geometric flower beds, built around 1570 for Joanna of Austria. The
garden in front of the grotto, characterized by some flowerbeds bordered
by hedges, is called Madama's Garden.
Garden of Jupiter
A
little further down follows the Garden of Jupiter, from the statue of
seated Jupiter, by Baccio Bandinelli (1556), while near this garden are
the two large statues of the Dacian Prisoners, ancient sculptures from
the 2nd century, formerly at Villa Medici; the two submissive barbarians
with their hands tied and red granite robes probably come from the Forum
of Trajan: they are very similar to those reused in the Arch of
Constantine; the two bases with reliefs of Victories, Dioscuri and
conquered barbarians instead come from the temple of the Sun on the via
Lata built by Aurelian or, less likely, from the nearby Arcus Novus.
Descending to the level of the building through a serpentine avenue
used by carriages, one arrives at an area covered with gravel, where
once the carriages with horses were stationed.
Near the exit to
Piazza Pitti is the Fontana del Bacchino, an example of the grotesque
style so popular in gardens between the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. It is in fact made up of the figure of the obese dwarf
Morgante, the most popular of the court dwarfs of Cosimo I, portrayed by
Valerio Cioli naked and astride a turtle (1560). The statue has now been
replaced by a copy (the photo shows the copy previous to the current
one, which replaces the original stored in the garden deposits).
On this side of the boundary wall passes the Vasari Corridor, which here
has the canonical exit of its modern museum tour, and a little further
on, always along the edge, is the famous Grotta del Buontalenti
The Grotta Grande, or Grotta del Buontalenti, is one of the most valuable elements of the park. Its construction is mainly due to Bernardo Buontalenti, who created it between 1583 and 1593 on behalf of Francesco I de' Medici, one of the most bizarre and surprising architectures in Florence.
Up again, from the garden of the Cavaliere, if you go down instead
towards the south, before reaching the Prato dell'Uccellare, the
perspective entry point of the second axis of the garden (the
Viottolone), you come across a second stairway flanked by hedges and
decorated by two statues of seated Muses.
A little later is the
marble group of Lavacapo (1595-1597), the work of Valerio Cioli for
Ferdinando I.
From here you enter a meadow that runs along the
Neptune basin from above, where there are some buildings that in ancient
times served as homes for the gardeners, tool and plant sheds during the
winter. Here are also the ragnaie, i.e. those thick woods where nets
were stretched to catch small birds.
In the shady paths that
occupy the space between the amphitheater and the Prato del Pegaso,
surrounded by tall trees, there are two curious buildings covered by
domes and partially underground: these are the two Boboli iceboxes,
forerunners of refrigerators. Here, thanks to the ice that was
transported daily from Abetone and thanks to the environment that
recreated the climatic conditions of the caves, the food destined for
the grand ducal kitchens was kept.
Meadow of Uccellare
The ideal entrance to the second axis is the
so-called Uccellare meadow ("uccellare" means to hunt small birds, in
fact the clearings in a wooded area were called this), located in an
elevated position and crossed by the Viottolone (although to the north,
beyond the Uccellare meadow towards the amphitheater, this avenue
becomes a minor ups and downs).
This large lawn is surrounded by
centuries-old holm oaks and cypresses and marks the border with the
western part of the garden. In the center it is decorated by a broken
column, while on one side there is one of the few contemporary works in
the garden: a monumental bronze head by Igor Mitoraj (1998), left in the
garden after the 2002 exhibition on the Polish artist. From here you can
enjoy an excellent view of the Oltrarno district, beyond the Palazzina
della Meridiana.
Pegasus Meadow
Below the Prato
dell'Uccellare, crossed by zig-zag paths, the so-called Prato del Pegaso
extends, a hilly slope that leads back to the level of the building, in
particular in front of the gravel-covered square of the Meridiana
building.
This area owes its name to the marble sculpture of
Pegasus, the work of Aristodemo Costoli in 1865, used as a symbol by the
Tuscany Region. There are other statues and a large gray granite basin.
The large trees that stand isolated and asymmetrical recall the taste of
the English garden.
Viottolone
The Viottolone is a wide,
steeply descending avenue, flanked by two rows of cypresses planted in
1637 and decorated with numerous statues, which marks the secondary axis
(the 17th-18th century one towards the south-west) of the garden. The
statues, placed symmetrically near the crossroads with the three
transversal avenues, are both ancient (Roman) and modern, mainly from
the eighteenth century.
The area to the left of the lane,
formerly occupied by the labyrinth, today has the serpentine avenue for
the roundabout of the carriages. In this area the central basin of the
labyrinth remains, today surrounded by an elliptical flower bed. The
right side was instead dedicated to hunting and there is also a walled
garden. On the two sides of the viottolone run two straight galleries
suggestively surrounded by vegetation.
The entrance to the
Viottolone from Prato dell'Uccellare is marked by two statues known as
the Greek Tyrannicides, in front of a scenography of cypresses and
laurel hedges. These two statues have only the ancient torsos, and the
one on the left is particularly valuable, a copy of the Aristogeiton
from the bronze group of 447 BC. by the Athenian sculptors Critius and
Nesiotes (the one on the right is being restored).
The Viottolone
is therefore cut by three side avenues which create six sections of the
garden.
The first transversal avenue, starting from the mountain, consists of
a pergola of holm oaks which form two galleries with low stone seats on
the sides.
Before reaching the main crossroads, a driveway is
marked by two statues; in perspective on the left we see a basin
surrounded by an elliptical flower bed, which was the center of one of
the labyrinths in this part of the garden.
At the meeting point
with the Viottolone four statues have been placed on each corner:
Prudence, Aesculapius and dying Hippolytus (from Policleto) by Giovanni
Caccini, Autumn/Bacchus and Summer/Ceres by Raffaello Petrucci.
In the boxes immediately to the west are: to the north, bordering the
Uccellar meadow, the Cantiere della Sughera (a walled nursery, also used
for educational activities), and to the south, the Botanica Superiore
garden, in turn walled up and made up of greenhouses and tanks for the
cultivation of isogenic species. Under this garden there is a large
vaulted room with niches, used in the past as a deposit for vegetation
waste.
In the panels to the east, the holm oak groves begin in
which runs a winding avenue, used as a roundabout for carriages.
At the end, on the right is the Ocean Fountain, homonymous with the more
famous one in the center of the Boboli islet. This smaller fountain
depicts a young man at whose feet stands a dolphin pouring water.
The second transversal avenue cuts across the Viottolone at a
crossroads with three Roman statues, a Senator, a Bacchus and a bald
Philosopher, while a fourth statue with Andromeda is from the eighteenth
century.
At the end of the branch of the left transversal avenue,
near the city walls, the perspective view is dominated by the colossal
bust of Olympian Jupiter, attributed to Giambologna (about 1560), on a
sandstone base. Next to the statue is also the curious Mostaccini
fountain by Romolo del Tadda (1619-1621), consisting of a series of
small basins on various steps connected by canals and with masks that
pour water from one level to the lower one. In addition to its aesthetic
value, this fountain also had a practical function: the small tanks were
supposed to attract small birds which were then captured with spider
nets hung from the branches of the nearby grove (known as the ragnaia
della Pace). The "mostaccini" are the little masks with frowning
expressions.
The third transversal avenue is the most south-westerly one and from
the crossroads with the Viottolone numerous complicatedly intertwined
paths lead to the final segment of the garden. At the intersection of
the avenues, the box hedges form four exedras in which as many statues
are placed: Aesculapius, Andromeda, Nymph and Modesty.
To these
must be added the nearby groups of players, of eighteenth-century
workmanship according to the taste for peasant and commoner themes: the
Players in the pot by Giovan Battista Capezzuoli and the Players of the
Saccomazzone (1780) by Orazio Mochi based on drawings by Romolo del
Tadda (the " Saccomazzone" was a game where two blindfolded players,
still keeping one hand on a rock, tried to drive away the opponent by
hitting him with a long knotted rag).
At the end of the lane, the botanical décor suddenly changes, the
cypresses and hedges disappear and we arrive at the soft forms of the
Vasca dell'Isola, also called Isolotto and designed by Alfonso and
Giulio Parigi from 1618, instead of an "island of Venus" whose statues
were then relocated elsewhere (such as the cherubs of the Artichoke
fountain).
The square is surrounded by holm oak hedges about 12
meters high, which form the backdrop for the numerous stone and marble
statues depicting various subjects: mythological, historical, rural,
commoners.
At the center of the square, the large circular pool
is the protagonist, with the island in the center connected to the
mainland by two walkways. The large gates of the walkways are supported
by two columns, on each of which there is a statue of a capricorn, an
animal symbol of the power of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. On the sides
of the columns there are imaginative fountains in the shape of male
"harpies", which pour water into shell-shaped tanks, with a complex
grotesque decoration of marine beings.
On the axis perpendicular
to the Viottolone there are four fountains at the level of the external
balustrade, two on each side: the fountains of the Harpies and those of
the Putti, decorated with intertwined dolphins, marine animals,
fantastic masks and statues in the round on the top. Near these
fountains, some impressive marble groups from the school of Giambologna
(1637) emerge from the water in the basin: Perseus on horseback
(south-east) and Andromeda with her ankles chained in the rock
(north-west); in particular Perseus is placed as herself leaping out of
the water, an effect which was emphasized by the jets of water.
In the middle of the basin, the island is surrounded by a stone railing,
in the hollows of which are housed the terracotta jars which in the
summer months contain the collection of citrus fruits and other
decorative plants; citrus fruits are also found lined up on the
catwalks.
The center of the island is decorated by Giambologna's
Fountain of the Ocean, composed of a base with bas-reliefs (The
Abduction of Europa, the Triumph of Neptune and Diana's Bath) which
supports a circular basin in granite from the Island of Elba , above
which the sculptural group of Neptune rises, surrounded by reclining
river deities. They represent the Nile, the Ganges and the Euphrates,
which symbolically pour their waters into the large basin, representing
the Ocean. The Ocean fountain is older than this part of the garden and
was once located in the center of the Boboli Amphitheater: it was
sculpted for Francesco I in 1576 and served as the prototype for all the
sculptures of this subject; the original of the Ocean is now in the
Bargello and here it is replaced by a copy.
On the axis of the Viottolone, separated from the islet by two
symmetrical groves marked by a neoclassical entrance with small
obelisks, is the large semicircular clearing of the Hemicycle or Prato
delle Colonne, due to the two Egyptian red granite columns that support
as many vases in white marble, which once belonged to Lord Cower.
The Hemicycle is surrounded on the curved side by a series of plane
trees regularly spaced out by twelve green niches with statues (mainly
17th century busts). The straight side, on the other hand, is made up of
a high box hedge with greenery niches containing four ancient colossal
busts: Jupiter Serapis, Jupiter, an unexplained male deity, and Claudius
Emperor. Also notable is the statue of Vulcan by Chiarissimo Fancelli.
Towards Porta Romana
The extreme tip of the garden, behind the
hemicycle, is occupied by a roundabout with geometric hedges, where
numerous stone statues are placed, such as the three grotesque figures
by Romolo del Tadda, depicting Venus, Cupid and the personification of
Architecture (1617- 21). Also interesting is the Botticella fountain,
made up of the statue of a farmer emptying a barrel (by Giovanni
Fancelli, 1560) into a basin made from a Roman sarcophagus. The Man with
a Spade by Valerio Cioli and Giovanni Simone Cioli is also similar.
In front of the Porta Romana entrance is a remarkable Perseus by
Vincenzo Danti, formerly at the Medici villa of Pratolino, surrounded by
a boxwood exedra where there is also a Roman sarcophagus with the labors
of Hercules.
Right side
Going up the side that runs along via
Romana, you come across some statues such as the Man unloading the
bucket into a vat by Valerio Cioli and Giovanni Simone Cioli, until you
reach the large lemon house.
lemon house
The Medicis were
among the first to spread the fashion for citrus fruits in their
gardens. Citrus fruits are plants that do not grow normally in Tuscany
due to the harsh winters, so they were in fact considered as exotic
plants. Their great ornamental value prompted a collection of these
plants, which during the winter had to find shelter indoors, in special
buildings called lemon houses. To make these movements possible, the
lemons did not have to be planted on the ground, but in large terracotta
pots called basins, handcrafted and which are in themselves a valuable
ornament. The lemon groves must have had a mild but dry microclimate, so
the floor was often paved instead of paved, for better moisture
absorption.
The Boboli lemon house is located halfway between the
Palazzo and the end of the garden. The result of the transformation of a
previous factory of mosaics, sponges and statues (and former
headquarters of the Compagnia di Santa Brigida), it was built around
1778 to a design by Zanobi del Rosso, during a general rearrangement of
the garden commissioned by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. On this site at
the time of Cosimo III there was the Serraglio degli Animali, where
exotic animals bought or received as gifts from foreign sovereigns were
kept (giraffes or a hippopotamus now stuffed and kept in the Museo della
Specola), but also animals for kitchens. Previously, the citrus fruits
were kept in the so-called Stanzonaccio by Giulio Parigi (1618), but now
too far away and on a slope after the expansion towards the
semi-hemisphere.
The facade of the lemon house is built from the
regular repetition of four bays with four large windows plus four upper
windows, separated by pilasters; in the upper part there is a cartouche
with festoons of fruit and a slightly projecting pediment; the mirrors
around the windows have a "Lorraine green" colored plaster also used in
the Kaffeehaus, but unlike the latter, the color of the lemon house has
always remained the same over the centuries (the only restoration of
which we have memory is from October 2004). A long cornice slightly
projecting above the doors concludes the elegant facade. The sculptures
on the facade represent the Muses, while in the flowerbeds opposite
there are two Muses and the Fortuna group with cornucopia, Roman works
copied from Hellenistic sculptures, as well as the Bagpipe player by
Giovanni Battista Caccini.
In winter, the lemon house is crowded
with a large number of plants, especially citrus fruits, some of which
date back to the Medici era with original cultivars.
List of some
of the preserved citrus species:
Bitter orange
curly orange
Curly orange grafted on bitter orange
Orange from Haiti (18th
century)
Cinnamon orange
Strong orange
Bergamot
Bergamot of
Middle Eastern origin
Calamondino (small orange with rounded fruit)
Wrinkled cedar
Citrus aurantium virgatum, plant with fruits one
different from the other with the typical lines, also called
"Landsknecht underpants", inedible
Cedar "Hand of Buddha", from the
botanical garden of Palermo
Citrus medica florentina
Salicifolia
Bitter Orange
Chinese orange
Citrus australis, with very small
citrus fruits
Citrus hystrix kaffir lime
Kumquats
Monstrous
warty file
Lime (only green fruit)
Lime
Sweet lime
Red lime
from Rangpur (India)
Citron lemon
Cinnamon lemon
Variegated
lemon with red sauce
Small pear
Grapefruit
Crepe leaf
grapefruit
Pink grapefruit
Pummelo, ancestor of grapefruit (18th
century)
Satzuma (February Mandarin)
Sfusato, originally from the
Amalfi Coast
Original tarot
Normal Tarot
White variegated
New plant with orange blossom flower, with a small and finely striped
lemon.
Continuing along the driveway parallel to via Romana, one arrives at
the entrance on this same via called Annalena (from the name of the
ancient convent of Annalena which was located here), with a gate guarded
by two sleeping stone lions.
The perspective of this entrance is
embellished by the Grotto of Adam and Eve (1817), built as a small
exedra preceded by two columns supporting an architrave. The interior is
decorated with spongy concretions and polychrome pebble mosaics, while
the name derives from the sculptural group of Adam and Eve by
Michelangelo Naccherino (about 1616).
Still on the same side of
via Romana, going up towards Palazzo Pitti, we come across the Palazzina
di Annalena, a small building in the neoclassical style by the architect
Cacialli.
The Palazzina della Meridiana, a neoclassical work begun by Gaspare
Maria Paoletti under the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1778 and
completed by Pasquale Poccianti in 1822-1840, takes its name from the
sundial that crossed it inside.
It is accessed from Palazzo Pitti
and preserves the frescoes with Episodes of the Betrothed by the
nineteenth-century painter Nicola Cianfanelli. It currently houses the
Costume Gallery, but a few years ago it also housed the
Contini-Bonacossi Collection.
In the Piazzale in 1935 Alceste
(Gluck) was performed directed by Vittorio Gui with Gina Cigna and
Benvenuto Franci for the second Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Adjacent to the Palazzina della Meridiana is the so-called Giardino
del Conte, enclosed by a gate and screened by a hedge of holm oak and
laurel. A pineapple-shaped bas-relief on the pillars of the gate recalls
how botanical experiments were held here to settle exotic plants.
From here you can also see clearly the ancient Observatory of the
Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History.
The pineapple garden is a part of the garden so called because exotic plants such as coffee and pineapples were grown there and which saw its maximum splendor in the 19th century, with Filippo Parlatore. The botanist wanted to make a herbarium with flowers, fruits and seeds of rare plants from all over the world. Today the garden houses a rich collection of aquatic plants, as well as varieties of exotic plants, in perfect symbiosis with the surrounding landscape.
In 2007 an exhibition was held in the lemon house of the Boboli
Gardens which displayed archaeological pieces, sculptures, mosaics,
frescoes, fountains and other gardening objects to show the history of
the gardens.
Marco Pozzoli's contemporary garden is an exhibition
held in 2013 in homage to the architect for his forty years of
profession.
In 2015 the Boboli Garden Museum and the Bardini Gardens
dedicated an exhibition, curated by Alberto Salvadori, to the sculptural
works of Lynn Chadwick.