Florence, Boboli opens the secret garden of the Camellias

Inside Boboli there is a secret corner, never open to the public, which is now finally ready to welcome visitors after a long and complex restoration: the Camellia Garden, full of centuries-old plants, an artificial grotto, water features and frescoes . This small green space, built in the shadow of the ramparts that divide the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti from the Medici park and protected by walls, was created around the mid-17th century for the younger brother of Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Prince Mattias de ‘ Medici: the secret garden was in fact adjacent to his apartments and legend has it that, also embellished with water jets from the floor and fountains, it was his love nest.

An arched artificial grotto, placed near the entrance, served to protect the most hidden and private part of the Garden, leaning against the Royal Palace of Florence, from prying eyes. In this very delicate place it will be possible to enter the ambit of accompanied visits, for which reservations are not required, during the months of April and May: they will take place from Tuesday to Sunday, and there will be three in the morning and three in the afternoon, for a maximum of 15 people at a time. In past centuries this area was reserved for some members of the grand ducal family and was dedicated to the cultivation of exotic plants and rare varieties of citrus fruits, later replaced in the 19th century by various species of camellias, still present today. In addition to the nineteenth-century collection of camellias, the typically seventeenth-century architectural structure of this space is of particular interest. The water features that characterized it in the past are now evoked through a strategic use of light. Under the floor inside the cave, spotlights were positioned in correspondence with the holes from which the jets gushed, so as to illuminate the frescoed vault and recreate the evocative atmosphere of the past.
History
The Garden of the Camellias had been in poor condition for some time, mainly due to the malfunctioning of the drainage and water drainage system. An architectural, structural, botanical and plant engineering restoration work has been undertaken since 2021 which has fully restored its functionality. The total cost was approximately 875 thousand euros. The recovery operations also involved the surrounding walls and the scenic cave, as well as the ancient stone paving of the garden. In the room that houses the statue of Igea, the fresco and tempera paintings made by Giuseppe Gherardi around 1819 have been brought to light: on the ceiling you can admire putti playing among flowering branches, while lower down mythological scenes are depicted , such as the torment of Pentheus and Orpheus and the Bacchantes. The director of the Uffizi, Eike Schmidt explains: «Boboli is an immense theater where nature and art combine in a complex historical stratification, offering continuous surprises and jewels such as the Garden of the Camellias. This is a very suggestive space, not only for the wonders of the botanical collection, but also for the capricious architecture, for the scenographic inventions and for the decoration, now finally restored and returned to the public. It is an important step in the great project that will see the whole park restored in 2030».

The secret link covered in green
The Garden of the Camellias is located between the south wing of Palazzo Pitti and the bastion of the Meridiana and was designed to connect the private apartments of Prince Mattias de’ Medici with the Boboli Gardens. Originally this long and narrow space was an area intended for the cultivation of the so-called «flowering onions» (bulbous) in raised boxes, built in masonry. The passionate grower was Cardinal Giovan Carlo, brother of Prince Mattias. In 1688, when those apartments were assigned to Violante of Bavaria, wife of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, the garden was also restructured by the architects Giacinto Maria and Biagio Marmi who gave it the appearance we still know today. A path leads from the apartments towards the square and the ramp of the Amphitheater, equipped with benches and two small pools with jets; a small grotto with a fake ruin appearance separates the public space from the private. At the end of the 18th century, the small garden was sunken due to the raising of the Meridiana square, thus the sunshine necessary for the cultivation of flowering bulb plants was lost: these conditions led to allocate this area to the cultivation of camellias which at that time were much appreciated.
The arrival of the camellia in Italy
This magnificent flower comes from the Far East and can be dated back to 1860 and Tuscany was one of the most vital centers of diffusion of this flower, given the high number of enthusiasts and growers. Of the Camellia genus, the japonica species is the most represented in the garden with some specimens (“Candidissima”, “Anemoniflora”, “Pulcherrima”, “Rosa Simple”).