Just fifteen minutes from Florence going north on the “Bolognese” road through some woods is the little town of Pratolino, (the name derives from the word “prato” which means field in Italian).Villa Demidoff of Pratolino is a well-known park where Florentine families take day trips to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city to enjoy the cool weather of the Tuscan hills just north of Florence.
The name Demidoff derives from the wealthy Russian family who bought the Medici Villa in 1872 and restored the “Paggeria” for living quarters, and then the other buildings, all , of course, in a grandiose style with the intent to impress guests in their vast garden embellished with elegant statues.
In 1580 The Villa Medici of Pratolino had a garden with an elaborate network of fountains fed from springs of the nearby mountains – using an intricate system of cisterns and pipes. There were numerous artificial grottoes and moving statues, and mechanical figures activated by water, sometimes accompanied with music (water organs).
This park of wonders, which today we can only create with our imagination, bears the imprint of three personalities: the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco De’ Medici, the court architect Bernardo Buontalenti and the sculptor known as Giambologna.Thanks to the skills of all the creators, there is a sophisticated play of allusions and symbolism combining elements of the classical world , philosophy and mythology.
At the center of this world of wonder and excitement, is water, the energy and dispenser of life and fertility.There wa a vertical movement starting from the top with the figure of Zeus, the god of the rains (now at the Boboli Gardens and here replaced with a copy)below the statue of the Appennine – still standing although a bit transformed, below a spring, then further below was the Villa (the symbolic power of the Duke Francesco over the citizens of Florence) and finally at the end was a fountain with statues of a laundress and a child.
At the “Firenze Com’Era” museum one can see the late sixteenth century Lunette painting by the Duch painter Giusto D’Utens of the Villa and Park.We can clearly see the differences from the Medici period to today:on the left side of the villa are the Farm , the Stables, and the Chapel which still exist today. Missing is the the Grotto of the female bear symbolizing maternal love, and the many ponds or “Gamberaie” ( from the Italian word for prawn). the Grotto of Cupid still exists but without its springs.
In the painting on the right side of the painting we see the Paggeria, which still survives. Missing is the Great Aviary, now a pool, and the fountain of Juno with peacocks and statues representing the two rivers Arno and Arbia – now dismantled in the courtyard of the Bargello Museum. We also see in the painting the Big Oak tree with platforms to look at the stars, the mountain “Parnasus” with the statue of Pegasus, now at Boboli, but was once located at the top of the mountain.
Below the villa and down hill from the fountain of the laundress were two low walls whose springs would emit powerful sprays of water creating a tunnel underneath where it was possible to walk without getting wet; the effects of the refracted sunlight on the water would create a beautiful continuous rainbow!
At the very end of this fantastic world, as I’ve already mentioned, was the fountain with the statue of the laundress with a cherub who was trying to figure out what he was doing inside the fountain!
Villa Demidoff today has an original English style garden which dates back to the ”Biedermayer” period, created by Bohemian Josef Fricks in the early 1800’s for the Hapsburg-Lorraine dynasty, the dukes who succeeded the Medici dynasty which died out in 1737.
