Cascine park

The green lung of Florence at the gates of the city centre, along the Arno river

Cascine Park is the green lung of Florence, at the gates of the city centre. It’s the largest public park, with a surface of about 130 hectares along the Arno river. Thanks to its vegetation, huge meadows, boulevards and paths, the park is the ideal place where to practise sports (freely, or taking advantage of the several sporting facilities), or to relax enjoying the nature and the quiet of the area. The park is also a market location (every Tuesday morning), event venue (fairs, concerts, shows) and much more.

Le Cascine was once the property of Alessandro and Cosimo I de’ Medici (sixteenth century) who purchased the land, using it as a hunting ground and a place to farm and breed cattle. During the 18th century, thanks to Pietro Leopoldo, the Habsburg-Lorraine Grand Duke of Tuscany, the area was accessible to the public, although only in some occasions (Court Feasts, Ascension day). In the same period (1785) the architect Giuseppe Manetti created important buildings such as the “Palazzina Reale” and the “Ghiacciaia-Piramide”. Elisa Baciocchi, sister of Napoleon, Grand Duchess of Tuscany transformed definitely the Cascine in a public park (1807-1815), thus giving the city a vast green area. During the second half of the 19th century the architect Giuseppe Poggi planned a huge square (the present Piazza Vittorio Veneto), originally intended to be the entrance area to the park. The “Scuola di guerra aerea” is the last, most important architectural realization; it was created in 1938 by Raffaello Fagnoni.

The vegetation of the park is very rich (more than 19.000 trees). You can admire monumental cedar trees (Piazzale Vittorio Veneto), pine trees, plane trees and a spectacular Ginkgo Biloba (piazzale delle Cascine), holm oaks (Prato del Quercione), white poplars (on the bank of the Arno river) horse-chestnut and cedar trees (Giardino della Catena). There several birds living in the park: beside the most common (sparrows, swallows, blackbirds, robins, peacocks) you can also find grey herons and egrets.