The weekend public opening season of the Pratolino Medici Park, in the municipality of Vaglia, a few kilometres north of Florence, begins on Easter Day, 31 March.
It was Francesco I dei Medici, at the end of the 16th century, who bought the estate and entrusted his friend Bernardo Buontalenti with the task of building the villa and the park that surrounded it, creating what was later called the Park of Wonders: the villa, now destroyed, had on its ground floor a complex of artificial grottoes animated by water games and automata. The park was also full of imaginative gimmicks that made it a place of delight and recreation for Francesco and his beloved, Bianca Cappello.
Of all the buildings and artefacts at Pratolino that have survived to the present day, the Giant of the Apennines, a work by the Flemish artist Jean de Boulogne (called Giambologna), is undoubtedly the symbol of the place: it is a colossal statue, more than 10 m high, covered in sponges and limestone concretions, depicted in the act of standing up.
The Park, since 2013 part of the UNESCO serial site together with the other Medici villas and gardens of Tuscany and owned by the Metropolitan City of Florence, will be open from Friday to Sunday and holidays until the end of October.
From 31 March to 27 October 2024, the Pratolino Medici Park will once again be open to visitors at weekends and on public holidays.
