Description
The Boboli Amphitheater is the open-air theater of the Boboli Gardens, with tiered seating and niches, right behind Palazzo Pitti, on the garden's main axis.
It served the Medici court for summer shows, above all carousels and equestrian ballets. It is the oldest court theater in Florence to have come down to us.
The view of Palazzo Pitti is worth the climb up the tiers: you see the wings of the palace arranged around Ammannati's courtyard, and the Artichoke Fountain.
In the center stands an Egyptian obelisk from 1500 BC, the only one in Tuscany. It comes from Heliopolis: brought to Rome in the time of Domitian, it ended up in the garden of Villa Medici, and in 1788 Grand Duke Peter Leopold had it transported to Florence.
At its foot is a large gray granite basin, carved from a single block, perhaps from the Baths of Alexander in Rome, paired with the obelisk in 1840. Around it, niches of gray stone hold ancient and classically inspired statues.
Before it was a theater, the place was a quarry. The hill had been used to extract pietraforte since the Middle Ages: the father of Arnolfo di Cambio took stones from it to pave the streets, and the material for Palazzo Pitti came from here too.
It was Tribolo who imagined that hollow as a bell-shaped space. From 1550 it became an amphitheater of greenery, of holm oaks and cypresses, so successful that in 1615 it was copied for Marie de' Medici in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.
The masonry theater came with Ferdinando II, with seven tiers of seating, built however only on the south side, because of an outcrop of rock on the other. It was inaugurated in 1637 for the coronation as grand duchess of Vittoria della Rovere, with an equestrian carousel.
On the aedicules stood pairs of pietra serena dogs, looking toward the palace: they were removed in 1652. The tiers you see today are those rebuilt in 1764, when the 17th-century ones were buried.
In the 20th century the place became a stage again. In 1906 Pietro Mascagni gave a concert here for emigrants, and in the 1930s it hosted some editions of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Don't miss
• The view of Palazzo Pitti.
• The Egyptian obelisk.
• The granite basin.
• The niches with the statues.
Did you know?
• In the second niche from the left stands a supposed copy of Michelangelo's Hercules, now lost.
• In 1739 the fireworks display “The Labors of Hercules” celebrated Francis Stephen of Lorraine's arrival in Florence.
It served the Medici court for summer shows, above all carousels and equestrian ballets. It is the oldest court theater in Florence to have come down to us.
The view of Palazzo Pitti is worth the climb up the tiers: you see the wings of the palace arranged around Ammannati's courtyard, and the Artichoke Fountain.
In the center stands an Egyptian obelisk from 1500 BC, the only one in Tuscany. It comes from Heliopolis: brought to Rome in the time of Domitian, it ended up in the garden of Villa Medici, and in 1788 Grand Duke Peter Leopold had it transported to Florence.
At its foot is a large gray granite basin, carved from a single block, perhaps from the Baths of Alexander in Rome, paired with the obelisk in 1840. Around it, niches of gray stone hold ancient and classically inspired statues.
Before it was a theater, the place was a quarry. The hill had been used to extract pietraforte since the Middle Ages: the father of Arnolfo di Cambio took stones from it to pave the streets, and the material for Palazzo Pitti came from here too.
It was Tribolo who imagined that hollow as a bell-shaped space. From 1550 it became an amphitheater of greenery, of holm oaks and cypresses, so successful that in 1615 it was copied for Marie de' Medici in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.
The masonry theater came with Ferdinando II, with seven tiers of seating, built however only on the south side, because of an outcrop of rock on the other. It was inaugurated in 1637 for the coronation as grand duchess of Vittoria della Rovere, with an equestrian carousel.
On the aedicules stood pairs of pietra serena dogs, looking toward the palace: they were removed in 1652. The tiers you see today are those rebuilt in 1764, when the 17th-century ones were buried.
In the 20th century the place became a stage again. In 1906 Pietro Mascagni gave a concert here for emigrants, and in the 1930s it hosted some editions of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Don't miss
• The view of Palazzo Pitti.
• The Egyptian obelisk.
• The granite basin.
• The niches with the statues.
Did you know?
• In the second niche from the left stands a supposed copy of Michelangelo's Hercules, now lost.
• In 1739 the fireworks display “The Labors of Hercules” celebrated Francis Stephen of Lorraine's arrival in Florence.