When "Family Trees" are both Figurative and Literal: the Medici's Gardens

By: Brooke Davidson

This is the Monkey Fountain named for its three sculpted primates at its base. The fountain was finished in 1611.

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Well, try telling that to the Medicis, a wealthy Florentine family who owned 90,000 square meters of flora such as these in the form of the Boboli and the Bardini Italian Gardens. This adage would be inapplicable for these medieval bankers at the top of the political and spiritual food chains starting in the Middle Ages.

The Boboli Gardens

Bought in 1549 by Cosimo de Medici’s wife, Eleanor of Toledo, the Boboli Gardens is an outdoor museum outside the Pitti Palace, which became the family’s place of residence when purchased. The gardens are complete with Renaissance-era statues and different grottos designed by Niccolo Tribolo, Bartolomeo Ammanati, Giorgio Vasari and Bernardo Buontalenti.

They even used to have a zoo with exotic animals that Cosimo III commissioned, but it was replaced by the Lemon House, a greenhouse for citrus trees collected by the Medicis in the 1500s.

Festivals were also held in the Boboli Gardens to show off for the aristocrats of Florence. It’s called the “green lung” of Florence for a reason. The Boboli Gardens sport a wide variety of blooming flowers and trees that are centuries old. In fact, it inspired Versailles in France!

Wildlife can be found all around the Boboli Gardens. This particular one is most likely a cabbage white butterfly, a male by the look of its singular spot on its wing.

The Amphitheater

Right behind Pitti Palace is the entrance to the Boboli Gardens with the "artichoke" fountain nicknamed by clever Florentines back in the day. Stone was quarried from this hillside, and the resulting shape was turned into the main amphitheater. Roman mythological figures cast in marble keep watch while an authentic Luxor Obelisk has remained in the amphitheater's center since 1789.

Medici Family History

How did the Medicis get so rich? After founding the Medici Bank in Florence, Giovani de Medici was responsible for funding the Renaissance, the period after the Middle Ages that exploded with artistic and economic growth that spread across Florence and the European continent beyond. Trading and investing in the textile industry made the Medicis rich beyond imagination. Their passion for art propelled Florence to become the art capital of the western world (which it has been to this day) through wealth brought in by enforced property taxes.

The main hall in the Medici’s Palazzo Vecchio could hold half a thousand guests, and without media to assist with communication of any kind in the Middle Ages, this was how the family influenced politics and public opinion. The Medicis joined Florence’s Signoria, the governmental group managing the city’s many guilds. They also kept their share of control on the Catholic Church as both bankers of the Vatican and three Medici popes down the line.

Giovanni’s son Cosimo was a key factor in the creation of many of the Florentine art pieces the world admires today, such as commissioning Donatello and Brunelleschi to make masterpieces. The other well-known Medici is Lorenzo de Medici. The grandson of Cosimo, Lorenzo survived the Pazzi conspiracy, where the Pazzi family plotted to kill the Medici brothers from the countryside in Chianti. Lorenzo de Medici kept the streak of artistic interest in the family by supporting Michelangelo and Botticelli in their Renaissance endeavors.

Alex Watts and Hannah Chapman enjoy a day at the Bardini Gardens. The two friends are originally from England.

Tourists from all over gather in the gardens to admire its history. In this case, Hannah Chapman and Alex Watts were the tourists the Bardini Gardens were made for. “They’ve got so many different palaces, and this is the way they show their wealth, those Medicis and other Florentines,” Chapman said. “We’re really interested in the Medicis!” This is only their sixth day in Florence, and the two are planning to travel around Italy for a total of three months after they started their summer journey in Venice.

The Duomo off the hillside is just one view that Alex spoke of in awe. This church was actually built hundreds of years before the gardens were.

Hannah had the chance to learn more about the Medici family during her time in the gardens. “How bougee they were!” Chapman said. “They were quite powerful. We’re obsessed with the architecture and the medieval churches they funded.”

Alex Watts also shared this interest. “My favorite part of Florence is where the Medicis are buried,” he said. This is in the nearby Basilica de San Lorenzo in Florence. “There’s this massive chapel that’s literally a crypt. It’s as tall as some of these buildings,” Chapman shared. “It’s incredible! You feel that small,” she said, forming a tiny distance between her fingers to demonstrate. “You feel about two centimeters high when you’re in there.”

The Bardini Gardens

Only a five-minute walk away is the lesser-known (but still just as beautiful) Bardini Gardens. These gardens have been around since medieval times and have been passed down through wealthy families after being turned from an agricultural site to more of an elitist spot to entertain guests. Florentine Stefano Bardini, known as the prince of the antiquarians back then, bought the garden in 1913 and restored it before the city took it over as its official property in the ‘60s.

It was named after Stefano Bardini in the early 2000s after a huge restoration process that opened it to visitors from around the world to enjoy panoramic views of Florence. Alex Watts agreed that this was his favorite aspect of the Bardini Gardens. “You got some very good views here of the main bit of Florence. That’s probably the best part,” he said.

One of these many pathways Hannah speaks of leads to this ancient staircase. It is a prime picture-taking spot for tourists to have Florence in the backdrop!

While his colleague appreciated looking out of the gardens onto the busy city, Hannah Chapman loved getting lost in the greenery, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Florence. “I like the way that they just have pathways going anywhere and everywhere; you probably don’t know where you’re going to turn out," she said.

The most famous part of the Bardini Gardens is the wisteria pergola flowers that twist around long arches. Just like the hillside it resides in, this flower isn’t without its history! Legend has it that Marco Polo brought wisteria from China in the early 18th century.

Whether one is looking for some historical facts or simply a breath of fresh air, both Boboli and Bardini Gardens are their best bet. Thank the Medicis for these wonders: these lush spaces that educate and delight millions of tourists are almost as big as the family’s ancient ego and financial power.