Visit to the Medici Park of Pratolino

In 1568 Francis de Medici, the grand Duke of Tuscany, asked Bernardo Buontalenti to design a villa and garden park for him on the hills north of Florence, where he could spend amorous time with his mistress. Buontalenti designed a fabulous palace, filled with grottoes, fountains, rivulets and pools, all supplied with water by an ingenious system of underground pipes and pumps. Buontalenti built grottoes and water features both inside the palace and throughout the park, statues spouting water, fish breeding in tanks, pools and streams. Francis held parties that were theatrical performances, all over the park, in amongst the trees and in the palace itself, with fire jugglers, fire sculptures intermingling with the water features and performers in outlandish costumes.

The very water features that made the palace and park enchanting ended up rotting the building so that it was eventually destroyed. Tantalising traces of the old water system still exist in the park, together with some of the old statues, now no longer sprouting water from fingers or toes.

The Appenine Colossus by Gianbologna

Buontalenti commissioned some of the best sculptors, such as Gianbologna, to create the many sculptures that adorned the park for Duke Francis. Over the centuries many of these sculptures were removed and transported to the Boboli gardens in Florence. But the Appenine Colossus, perhaps because it was too big to move, remained in the park. Originally Gianbologna sculpted it with a hollow interior filled with water features and surrounded by a fake mountain. In 1818 Joseph Frietsch was commissioned to redesign Pratolino. The park was turned into an English style garden. 

Statue of Jupiter holding lightning

La Maschera statue by the overgrown fish pond

In 1872 the Russian prince Paolo Demidoff bought the park and transformed the servants' quarters into villa Demidoff. He uncovered the Maschera statue, which had been covered in earth and dug out the pond. 

La Locanda, an old building from before Buontalenti's time.

This building was used as a carriage house and lodging for people travelling by carriage along the via Bolognese, the old road from Florence to Bologna. Later it was transformed into lodging for workers in the factories where sails and rope where manufactured. Today the ground floor is a restaurant and bar, while the first floor is used for meetings.