At the Boboli Gardens, the Camellia Garden opens to the public for the first time.

In Florence , a secret corner that is now finally ready to welcome visitors after a long and complex restoration opens to the public for the first time in the Boboli Gardens: it is the Camellia Garden. This small green space, created in the shadow of the ramparts dividing the courtyard of the Pitti Palace from the Medici park and protected by walls, was created around the middle of the 17th century for the Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici’s younger brother, Prince Mattias de’ Medici: the secret garden was in fact adjacent to his apartments and legend has it that, embellished also by water features jetting from the floor and fountains, it was his love nest. An arched artificial grotto , located near the entrance, served to protect from prying eyes the most hidden and private part of the Garden, leaning against the Palace.

Originally this long, narrow space was an area designated for the cultivation of so-called “flowering onions” (bulbous plants) in raised caissons built of 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 Ferdinando de’ Medici, the garden was also renovated, by architects Giacinto Maria and Biagio Marmi, who gave it the appearance we still know today. A pathway leads from the apartments to the square and the ramp of the Amphitheater, equipped with benches and two small pools with spouts; a passing grotticina with a faux-ruined appearance separates the public from the private space. At the end of the eighteenth century, the small garden was sunken for the elevation of the Meridiana square, so the sunshine necessary for the cultivation of flowering bulb plants was lacking: these conditions prompted this area to be set aside for the cultivation of camellias, which were highly prized at that time.

The arrival of the camellia in Italy from the Far East can be dated to 1860, and Tuscany was one of the most vital centers of dissemination of this flower, given the high number of enthusiasts and growers. Of the Camellia genus, the japonica species is the most represented within the garden with a few specimens (“Candidissima,” “Anemoniflora,” “Pulcherrima”, “Rosa Simplex”) and other reintroduced cultivars such as “Alba Simplex,” “Lavinia Maggi,” “Oscar Borrini,” “Tricolor,” and “Rosa Mundi.” Camellias prefer cool, humus-rich soils with PH tending to acid, well drained, and partially shady sites with considerable atmospheric moisture but well ventilated; mulches that protect surface roots from excess heat and frost are very useful.

In past centuries this area remained reserved for some members of the grand ducal family and was devoted to the cultivation of exotic plants and rare varieties of citrus trees, later replaced in the nineteenth century by a various species of camellias, which are 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 ancient times are now evoked through a strategic use of light. Spotlights have been placed below the interior floor of the grotto precisely at the holes from which the jets gushed, so as to illuminate the frescoed vault and recreate the evocative atmosphere of yesteryear.

This very delicate place can be entered as part of escorted tours, for which no reservations are required, during April and May: they will take place from Tuesday to Sunday, and there will be three in the morning and three in the afternoon (at 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m., respectively), for a maximum of 15 people at a time.

The Camellia Garden had been in poor condition for some time, mainly due to the malfunctioning drainage and water drainage system. Since 2021, thanks to internal funding from the Uffizi Galleries combined with funds from the Tuscany Region’s project The Renaissance in Tuscany: Medici villas and gardens (which uses resources from the 2014-2020 ROP ERDF), an architectural, structural, botanical and plant restoration project has been undertaken that has fully restored its functionality. The total cost was about 875 thousand euros.

The recovery operations also involved the surrounding walls and the scenic grotto, as well as the ancient stone paving of the garden. In the room that houses the statue of Hygieia, fresco and tempera paintings, made by Giuseppe Gherardi around 1819, have been brought to light: on the ceiling one can admire putti playing among flowering branches, while lower down are mythological scenes, such as the torment of Pentheus and Orpheus and the Bacchae.

“Boboli is an immense theater where nature and art combine in a complex historical layering, offering continuous surprises and jewels such as the Camellia Garden,” says Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt. “A space, this one, of great beauty and not only for the wonders of the botanical collection, but also for the whimsical architecture, scenic inventions and decoration, now finally restored and returned to the public. This is an important step in the grand project that will see the entire park restored in 2030.”

“This spring,” said Region President Eugenio Giani, “is enriched with a new jewel. After a careful restoration, a corner hitherto unknown to most people is opened to the public. A romantic garden to which architects Giacinto Maria and Biagio Marmi gave the appearance we still know today on the occasion of the wedding celebrated in 1688 between Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, heir to the throne of Tuscany, and Violante of Bavaria. So we have in Florence and Tuscany another highly prized green space, another space of history that, with its botanical treasures of the camellia family, goes to enrich the series of true open-air museums represented by the Medici gardens.”

“The reopening of the Camellia Garden to the public,” stresses Maria Landi, coordinator of the Boboli Gardens, “will allow us to return our visitors to the experience of one of the Garden’s most intimate and evocative corners, immersed among the flowers of the historic collection and the context that welcomes them, a collected environment of absolute beauty.”

“The complex integral restoration of the Camellia Garden, which began in 2021,” says Paola Ruggeri, head of restoration, “has now come to an end and was made possible also thanks to European Union funds found through the Region.”

At the Boboli Gardens, the Camellia Garden opens to the public for the first time.

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