May 1778, Boboli Gardens, Florence.

Spring has exploded in the Boboli Gardens and the budding scent of orange blossom hangs lightly in the air. Built by architect Zanobi del Rosso during the Habsburg-Lorraine age, the elegant Limonaia, or Lemon House, has over 500 pots of ancient and rare citrus trees. Blended with clary sage and lavender, as well as precious Tuscan iris root, their redolent scent is as light and airy as the gardens’ courtly spirit.

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- The Limonaia was built between 1777 and 1778, after a design by Zanobi del Rosso in the location of the former Menagerie erected by Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici in 1677 and dismantled by Grand Duke Peter Leopold Habsburg-Lorraine in 1776. The construction of the Lemon House became necessary as the collection of citrus trees expanded. 

- The left side of the Lemon House was enlarged in 1816 by Giuseppe Cacialli to create a space equal in width to two windows. Cacialli also oversaw the construction of a small room on the same side, designed for use as a storage for material and equipment with an office annex for the Head Gardener (“Scrittoio del Giardiniere”). This room preserves the late eighteenth-century cabinets which were once used to display a collection of citrus casts. Cacialli was also entrusted with the Neoclassical design of the two wings’ façades, which form the edge of the garden to the right and left.

- The area below the Lemon House consists of a garden with four large flowerbeds designed for growing roses. Along the wall at the base, there are various parterres originally conceived to propagate plants. The garden is closed off by two high walls which line the boulevard.

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