Description
The Parco delle Cascine is Florence's largest public park: 160 hectares of lawns and woods, a strip almost three and a half kilometers long on the right bank of the Arno, from the historic center to the confluence with the Mugnone stream. It is the Florentines' park, for running, cycling and strolling in the shade of very tall trees.
The name comes from cheese. The “cascine” were the dairies where the Medici's cows were milked to make butter and cheese: in 1563 Cosimo I made it his farming and hunting estate, with rare fruit trees for his experiments.
The heart of the park is the Piazzale delle Cascine, dominated by the Palazzina Reale, with very tall pines and plane trees and a ginkgo that lights up yellow in autumn. The visitor center is here too, in the old stables.
The wood covers more than thirty-five hectares, with about nineteen thousand trees: centuries-old pedunculate oaks, elms, maples, holm oaks and lindens. Beside it open large lawns, like the Quercione, and the park has racetracks, a velodrome and a swimming pool.
On Tuesday mornings the Cascine market takes place, in front of the Faculty of Agriculture, one of the largest in the city. In summer the piazzale and the lawns fill with concerts, festivals and events.
In the late 1700s Giuseppe Manetti filled it with curious buildings: the Palazzina Reale, two little neoclassical temples that were pheasant cages, a pyramid that served as an icehouse. The park became public in the early 1800s under Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon's sister.
On the Quercione lawns the first Florentine clubs played football, like the Florence Football Club, until the city banned it in 1917.
Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo had a model farming estate built here, with the Palazzina Reale at its center, which now houses the Faculty of Agriculture. Among the park's curiosities is the Quercione's drinking trough, known as the “Fountain of the Faces,” and in 1791 a great festival was held here, from July 2 to 5, for the installation of Ferdinand III.
Don't miss
• The Fountain of Narcissus.
• The monument to the Indian.
• The Piazzale delle Cascine.
• The peacock houses.
Did you know?
• At the Fountain of Narcissus, the inscription says, Shelley found inspiration for the “Ode to the West Wind.”
• The Indian was Rajaram Chuttraputti, a young prince who died suddenly during his visit to Florence in 1865.
• At the Festa del Grillo, on Ascension Day, the crickets caught on the lawns were sold in colorful little cages.
The name comes from cheese. The “cascine” were the dairies where the Medici's cows were milked to make butter and cheese: in 1563 Cosimo I made it his farming and hunting estate, with rare fruit trees for his experiments.
The heart of the park is the Piazzale delle Cascine, dominated by the Palazzina Reale, with very tall pines and plane trees and a ginkgo that lights up yellow in autumn. The visitor center is here too, in the old stables.
The wood covers more than thirty-five hectares, with about nineteen thousand trees: centuries-old pedunculate oaks, elms, maples, holm oaks and lindens. Beside it open large lawns, like the Quercione, and the park has racetracks, a velodrome and a swimming pool.
On Tuesday mornings the Cascine market takes place, in front of the Faculty of Agriculture, one of the largest in the city. In summer the piazzale and the lawns fill with concerts, festivals and events.
In the late 1700s Giuseppe Manetti filled it with curious buildings: the Palazzina Reale, two little neoclassical temples that were pheasant cages, a pyramid that served as an icehouse. The park became public in the early 1800s under Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon's sister.
On the Quercione lawns the first Florentine clubs played football, like the Florence Football Club, until the city banned it in 1917.
Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo had a model farming estate built here, with the Palazzina Reale at its center, which now houses the Faculty of Agriculture. Among the park's curiosities is the Quercione's drinking trough, known as the “Fountain of the Faces,” and in 1791 a great festival was held here, from July 2 to 5, for the installation of Ferdinand III.
Don't miss
• The Fountain of Narcissus.
• The monument to the Indian.
• The Piazzale delle Cascine.
• The peacock houses.
Did you know?
• At the Fountain of Narcissus, the inscription says, Shelley found inspiration for the “Ode to the West Wind.”
• The Indian was Rajaram Chuttraputti, a young prince who died suddenly during his visit to Florence in 1865.
• At the Festa del Grillo, on Ascension Day, the crickets caught on the lawns were sold in colorful little cages.