Parco delle Cascine

The Parco delle Cascine stretches to the west outside the city gates. With a length of three kilometres along the bank of the River Arno, the park came from an estate that the Medici family purchased as grand dukes and that they used above all for cattle-breeding and hunting. After the last member of the Medici dynasty died in 1737, the Habsburg-Lorraine grand dukes commissioned the architect Giuseppe Manetti to extend it into an English park, with the construction of paths, fountains, and the central “Palazzina” (1787) as a hunting lodge for the princely family. However, the part was open to the public only on Ascension Day and on special occasions. It was first made a public space in the wake of the Napoleonic occupation and quickly became a popular destination. The eight lithographs after drawings by Giuseppe Galli (1827-30) originate from this period. In contrast to the first view shown here, which is anonymous, they do not adopt the large number of people and the jostling excursion carriages as a central theme, but concentrate on the rural peace and freedom of a romantic and endless landscape. The fountains and architectural monuments such as the pyramid, which was originally used as a cold store, form reference points.