Description
The Giardino Torrigiani is a large private Romantic garden in the center of Florence, between Via de' Serragli and the walls, of about ten hectares: after Boboli, the largest in the city. It is not a simple park: it is a symbolic path from day to night, and then to rebirth, full of allusions to Arcadia and Freemasonry.
It was commissioned in the early 1800s by the Marquis Pietro Torrigiani, a lover of rare plants, who bought land up to the walls and reached ten hectares. The design was by Luigi de Cambray Digny, then Gaetano Baccani, and the route was so complex that in 1824 a printed guide was needed to visit it.
The garden opened to the public in 1824, and at the entrance on Via de' Serragli a statue of Osiris, the god linked to agriculture, the dead and resurrection, still holds the tablets with the rules for visitors. Carved hands on columns pointed the way.
The “day” part opens onto a large lawn with Pio Fedi's group showing Seneca and the young Pietro Torrigiani. Not far off was the Merlin's grotto, to recall man's inner strength, and the gymnasium, an Arcadian little temple where people changed after the games.
The “night” begins in a grove on an artificial hillock, with the hermitage, and continues in the ossuary, a small grotto preceded by Egyptian-style herms. Farther on, under a hillock, a chamber symbolized a crematorium: from there the “ashes” rose, through the tower, to a higher state of knowledge.
Baccani's neo-Gothic little tower, from 1824, recalls the family coat of arms, a tower with three stars. Its three levels allude to the degrees of Masonic initiation: from the square base you pass to an octagonal floor and a cylindrical top, where the circle symbolizes the perfection of knowledge. It also served as an observatory, with a library and astronomical instruments.
The garden is private: if you happen to get in, don't miss the statue of Osiris at the entrance, with the rules from 1824. Next to it is a plant nursery with nineteenth-century greenhouses. Here, thanks to Pietro Torrigiani, the Florence Football Club was also born, the oldest football club in Florence.
It was commissioned in the early 1800s by the Marquis Pietro Torrigiani, a lover of rare plants, who bought land up to the walls and reached ten hectares. The design was by Luigi de Cambray Digny, then Gaetano Baccani, and the route was so complex that in 1824 a printed guide was needed to visit it.
The garden opened to the public in 1824, and at the entrance on Via de' Serragli a statue of Osiris, the god linked to agriculture, the dead and resurrection, still holds the tablets with the rules for visitors. Carved hands on columns pointed the way.
The “day” part opens onto a large lawn with Pio Fedi's group showing Seneca and the young Pietro Torrigiani. Not far off was the Merlin's grotto, to recall man's inner strength, and the gymnasium, an Arcadian little temple where people changed after the games.
The “night” begins in a grove on an artificial hillock, with the hermitage, and continues in the ossuary, a small grotto preceded by Egyptian-style herms. Farther on, under a hillock, a chamber symbolized a crematorium: from there the “ashes” rose, through the tower, to a higher state of knowledge.
Baccani's neo-Gothic little tower, from 1824, recalls the family coat of arms, a tower with three stars. Its three levels allude to the degrees of Masonic initiation: from the square base you pass to an octagonal floor and a cylindrical top, where the circle symbolizes the perfection of knowledge. It also served as an observatory, with a library and astronomical instruments.
The garden is private: if you happen to get in, don't miss the statue of Osiris at the entrance, with the rules from 1824. Next to it is a plant nursery with nineteenth-century greenhouses. Here, thanks to Pietro Torrigiani, the Florence Football Club was also born, the oldest football club in Florence.