Kaffeehaus

Description

The Kaffeehaus in the Boboli Gardens in Florence is a pavilion built from about 1776, designed by Zanobi Del Rosso, by order of Pietro Leopoldo, who went there with his court to have coffee according to the fashion of the time. The Kaffeehaus consists of three overlapping volumes with an articulated alternation of concave and convex volumes. Differently treated materials enliven the façade, as do the various openings, while the perspective view of the complex is highlighted by the sloping terraces and the double flight of steps, beneath which is a grotticina formed of irregularly shaped boulders, in which a complex system of lead pipes ensured a vivid trickle of water, in imitation of royal grottoes. From the top of the Kaffeehaus, which also housed a café, there is a vast panorama, and from here the Viottolone, the secondary axis of the garden, also starts, although in this part of the garden it is only a minor up and down, gaining monumentality only after the grassy esplanade called the Prato dell'Uccellare.