Lemon House

Description

The Medici were among the first to spread the fashion of citrus trees in their gardens. Citrus trees are plants that do not normally grow in Tuscany because of the too harsh winters, so they were considered de facto exotic plants. Their great ornamental value prompted the collection of these plants, which had to find shelter indoors during the winter in special buildings called limonaie. In order to make these movements possible, the lemons had to be planted not in the ground, but in large earthenware pots called conche, which were handcrafted and a valuable ornament in themselves. The lemon houses had to have a mild but dry microclimate, so not infrequently the floor was dirt rather than paved, for better moisture absorption. The Boboli lemon house is located halfway between the palace and the far end of the garden. The result of the transformation of an earlier factory of mosaics, sponges and statues (and formerly the headquarters of the Compagnia di Santa Brigida), it was built around 1778 to a design by Zanobi del Rosso, during a general rearrangement of the garden ordered by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. On this site at the time of Cosimo III there was the Serraglio degli Animali, where exotic animals bought or received as gifts from foreign sovereigns (giraffes or a hippopotamus now stuffed and preserved at the Specola Museum) were kept, as well as animals for the kitchens. Previously, citrus fruits were stored in the so-called Stanzonaccio by Giulio Parigi (1618), now, however, too far away and uneven after the extension to the hemicycle. The facade of the lemon house is built by the regular repetition of four bays with four large windows plus four upper windows, separated by pilasters; the upper part has a cartouche with fruit festoons and a slightly projecting pediment; the mirrors around the windows have a plaster color of "green Lo