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Hidden in the heart of Florence, Torrigiani Garden covers nearly 17 acres and is the largest private one in Europe within the city walls.

It was already famous in the XVI century as a botanical garden, while it experienced a rebirth at the beginning of the XIX century when Marquis Pietro Torrigiani enlarged it by acquiring all the surrounding land and transformed it into a romantic English park according to popular taste.
The architect Luigi de Cambray Digny, already known for the renovation of the Orti Oricellari, was tasked with the very garden design on an area that originally covered 25 acres. Digny managed to combine the natural elements with several artificial ones, respecting the landscape true vocation, but at the same time inserting symbols linked to Freemasonry to which both he and the Marquis were affiliated.

After Digny, the architect and engineer Gaetano Baccani – the one who had successfully designed the bell tower of Santa Croce – was asked to supervise and manage the further work in the garden. Baccani was responsible for the creation of the famous neo-Gothic “torrino” (“little tower”) evoking the very the family crest. About twenty-two meter high, this tower featured a collection of astronomical instruments, a library, and an open terrace for sky observations.

In addition to its architectural importance, the garden is also renowned as a botanical one, extraordinarily rich in tree species and plants from different parts of the world, as evidenced by the presence of old and new greenhouses, lemon houses and tepidariums – today, gardening, horticulture and botanical painting course are usually held there.

Speaking of centuries-old plants, there are cedars (Cedrus libani, C. atlantica, and C. deodara), the large and rare Fagus tricolor, impressive specimens of Sequoia sempervirens, Ginkgo biloba, Pinus excelsa, Pinus strobus, an imposing Quercus robur, an Olea fragrans, several plane trees of exceptional size, very high cypresses, and holm oak woods.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)