The magnificence of the Boboli Gardens, with its layout and architecture, its botanical collections, statues and fountains make this location one of the finest examples of Italian garden art, testifying to the existence of a cultured clientele and to the refined patronage of the Medici family.
The design of the Boboli Gardens was defined in two stages. The first area, at the beginning of the 16th century under Eleanor of Toledo, wife of the Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici, was developed along the perspective axis that connects Palazzo Pitti to the Boboli Gardens Amphitheatre, created by excavating the hill climbing towards Forte Belvedere. The direction of the project was entrusted to Nicolò Tribolo, who after his death was replaced by Giorgio Vasari, Bartolomeo Ammannati and Bernardo Buontalenti. The garden houses collections of ancient and modern statues, grottoes and fountains, presenting itself as an exceptional display of 16th-century architecture and sculpture, becoming a template for many other museum-gardens. In the early 17th century, under the rule of Cosimo II, the garden was extended eastwards. The project was carried out by Giulio Parigi and the scenographic transformation of the garden was achieved by introducing a second perspective axis, the “Viottolone dei cipressi” that is almost perpendicular to the first. Flanked by a variety of different typologies of garden areas (labyrinths, ragnaia groves to capture birds, terraces and numerous sculptural furnishings), this avenue leads to the spectacular “Vasca dell’Isolotto” (1637) with the Fountain of the Ocean at the centre that represents the fulcrum of the new composition. The garden amphitheatre was also transformed by Giulio and Alfonso Parigi from 1630 into a masonry structure with seven tiers of steps crowned by niches. The connection of this area to the “Vasca del Forcone” level was also extended with the creation of a new garden amphitheatre embellished by a floral broderie. In the second half of the 18th century, in the time of Peter Leopold of Lorraine, new architectures were introduced at Boboli: the Kaffeehaus(1775), which is a rare example of Rococo architecture in Tuscany; the Limonaia Grande (large lemon tree house) by Zanobi Del Rosso (1777-78), and the Palazzina della Meridiana by Niccolò Gaspero Paoletti (1776). The Annalena entrance, which includes a small building and a grotto (realized by Giuseppe Cacialli in 1817) and a carriage road, designed by Pasquale Poccianti (1834) are 19th-century additions.
Highlights
Grotta Grande
In 1583 Bernardo Buontalenti initiated the renovation of this space transforming a pre-existing plant “nursery” or water reservoir begun by Vasari into what is now a wonderous grotto. From the entrance, with its architrave pronaos, the route leads through three rooms arranged according to a specific symbolic layout, probably referring to the phases of an alchemical process or to Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The Amphitheatre
Designed by Tribolo and realized in 1550, this feature was conceived as a green garden architecture, located on the “pietra forte” quarry from which the stone used for the construction of Palazzo Pitti had been extracted; Cosimo II converted this space into a masonry amphitheatre to stage choreographies and shows for the entertainment of the court. At the centre of the amphitheatre, dating from the Lorraine period are a red granite basin (1840, by Pasquale Poccianti) and an Egyptian obelisk from Villa Medici in Rome.
Limonaia Grande
Paired with a garden mainly devoted to the cultivation of roses, this “large lemon tree house” was built on what once was the site of Cosimo III's animal menagerie. The Limonaia Grande was a winter shelter for the citrus fruit tree collection that was mostly displayed in the “Giardino dell'Isola” area. It is still used today as winter shelter for the collection of about five hundred citrus tree “conche” vases. In the area that was extended during the early 19th century by Giuseppe Cacialli there are the late 18th-century cabinets which were once used to display a collection of citrus casts.
Garden of the "Cavaliere"
A small formal garden that owes its name to the bastion built by Michelangelo in 1529, the Garden of the "Cavaliere" was created in 1612 by Giulio Parigi. In 1792 it was redesigned by Giuseppe del Rosso together with the large room for the storage of garden vases that now houses the Porcelain Museum with its notable collection of Meissen, Ginori and Sèvres pieces from the Lorraine collections. The garden reaches its highpoint between the end of April and May when the roses and the peonies are in bloom.
Isolotto
Introduced in the second decade of the 17th century, this islet is a reinterpretation of the Island of Kythera from Francesco Colonna’s book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in a Dream). Composed of a pseudo-elliptical basin, it is bordered by elegant balustrades and sculptures; in the centre, the artificial islet houses a formal garden with lemon tree vases, antique roses and bulbs arranged around the Fountain of the Ocean, a copy of the sculpture by Giambologna (1576) that was placed here in 1637 intended as a backdrop to the Amphitheatre.
Palazzo Pitti
In 1550 Palazzo Pitti became the Medici residence. Later the complex became a palace of two other dynasties, that of the Hapsburg-Lorraine (who succeeded the Medici in 1737) and the House of Savoy, who resided there as Italian Royal family from 1865. Despite this history, Palazzo Pitti still bears the name of its first owner, the Florentine banker Luca Pitti. The complex currently houses four museums: the Treasury of the Grand Dukes, the Palatine Gallery and Royal and Imperial Apartments, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Costume and Fashion.