Garden of Ganymede

This area is part of the gardens overlooking the Kaffeehaus and were set out in the 1770s on occasion of the small building, when the area underwent significant changes to adapt it to the design of the new building. The operation reflected the wishes of Grand Duke of Tuscany, Peter Leopold, who wanted to rearrange the uncultivated and woody areas into new architecturally ordered spaces, using a new system for exhibiting the antique and renaissance sculptures. An engraving by Aniello Lamberti (1783), the View of the Kaffeehaus in the Royal Boboli Gardens (now in the BNCF), shows the way in which the space was transformed into a grass-laid garden with hedgerows, set out to limit pathways; the hill is designed with symmetrical stairways and terraces with vines alternated with fruit trees. As a composition linchpin for the whole area, the new Ganymede Fountain was placed on the lawns further downhill. The fountain consists of an oval basin with white marble bow beneath the 16th-century marble group of Ganymede atop an Eagle, a work attributed to the sculptor Giovanni Battista Lorenzi. The geometric structure has remained unchanged and only today it appears to be greatly simplified: the grating fences have disappeared, along with the vines and many of the hedges