Limonaia Palazzo Capponi

The “Limonaia” defines the northern border of the Palazzo Capponi’s garden, situated on Via Gino Capponi a short distance from the Duomo.

This land was bought in 1579 by Jacopo Salviati who created a lodge and a garden rich in rare fragrances and works of art. It soon became a famous Florentine place of great prestige.

Even at that time the garden of Salviati opened onto Via del Mandorlo, now Via Laura. It had a grandiose portal enriched by Tribolo’s statues and was arranged in a regular flowerbed design and was also embellished with statues and fountains.

It was obviously once a very important garden although it is now difficult to reconstruct its exact shape and appearance. In a map drawn by Bonsignori in 1584 a structure corresponding to the present Limonaia defined and enclosed the garden on the north side.

We may be able to identify this opening as the central arcade of the present Limonaia which nowadays conceals a beautiful artificial grotto. This grotto probably already existed in Salviati’s ancient garden and was an important feature, coinciding with a canonical pattern started in the previous century and well known to the Duke, who had built a similar one in his palazzo in Via del Corso.

With the deed of 20th November 1698, registered in the first months of the following year the Capponi family came into possession of the garden, the Senator Alessandro Capponi purchased from “the Duke Anton Maria Salvati, son and testamentary heir of Duke Francesco Maria Baron Romano….

a lodge with its own garden and keeper’s house situated in Firenze in Via Salvestrina popolo di San Michelino a Visdomini”.

Alessandro Capponi introduced many significant changes to Salviati’s garden. Much work was carried out on the Limonaia structure, particularly from January 1706, when the grandiose Palazzo Capponi was already finished. Bartolomeo Nencioni, a plumber from Pratolino was the executor of the main works. He brought in stones and sand from the Arno, quarry stones and even sponges and he used up an incredible amount of lampblack, nails, soap and chalk.

The works continued until the end of 1708 and in the meanwhile the grotto and the surroundings of the building enclosing Salviati’s “secret garden” were turned into an aviary accessed by the grotto.

Alessandro Capponi’s aim was to create a prestigious building, which was already fashionable during the previous century. In this he was aided by his conspicuous financial position and his wish for splendor, accrued in Rome.

However, in one of Wemer maps of around 1730 the present drawings are still missing from one of the facades.

The portion running from the palazzo to the central part shows no openings and a total absence of architectural features. Only in the corner where the two octagonal walls meet are there two niches made of sand stone, while the statues decorating it are not present. The central part (the large sand portal, the attic above it and the two openings beside it) is represented with architectural and decorative features similar to the existing ones. We can see the Bacchino, the sundial, the lozenges that decorate the openings and the small obelisks of the coping. The two pedestals beside the attic - which today support the marble busts – in the drawing are shown supporting two lions. As a proof of Wemer’s accuracy we must point out that on the 20th of July 1700 the accounts book shows the expenses paid for two stone lions made by Antonio Catani for the garden.

After 1730 further works were carried out in the garden and the extension of the Limonaia.

The decorations of that section of the Limonaia that still looks bare in Wemer’s map were probably connected to the various stages of completion of the whole complex and were carried out by the sons of Alessandro, Scipione and Francesco Maria.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FORMAL FEATURES AND THE MATERIALS OF THE FACADE

The surfaces of the facade of the Limonaia are entirely decorated following a geometrical composition and are in symmetry with the central axis of the upper level where a white marble sundial is mounted. On the roof coping there are eight marble busts alternated with six vases made of various materials.

A statue in white marble is placed on the top of the main building. Beside it there is a balustrade and two obelisks in pietra serena. On the sides of the facades there are two niches in pietra serena containing two statues made of bricks with a hydraulic mortar (sand and lime) finish.

The outer coating is decorated with mosaic work and seashells. The polychrome mosaics are formed by white marble tesseras from Carrara, green ones from Prato and Monsummano’s red ones, as well as kilns’ husks, seashell and river shell arrangements. Fragments of sponge stone are fixed onto the wall surface with nails and coarse sand mortar, the stalactites attached with copper or iron wire.

The mosaic is broken up by the opening of true windows and faux ones, rendered and lined with wooden supports in a Gris age style.

The supporting stone work is made of stone and bricks and it can easily been seen in those parts where the plaster has disappeared. The mortar they used differed depending on the material it had to support. When it supports marble it’s pigmented so as to blend in. The plastering on some of the surfaces is smooth so as to form moldings and architectural features.

The building in question goes back to either the period when palazzo Capponi was built (1705, project by the architect Carlo Fontana) or the period immediately after that.

The trapezoidal plan denotes a need for regulating the area available so that the garden would have a perfectly geometrical plan with the axis of the palazzo itself.

It is clear that the original purpose of the building was connected to the life of the garden; hence the name “Limonaia”, a place where tender plants such as lemon trees can find shelter. The area in the middle, due to its scenery, had obviously been created for the exhibition of rare flowers and birds.

Just as in the main palazzo where the lodgings of the servants were placed in the garrets, here too the small rooms on the upper floor were used as gardeners’ lodgings.

As shown in the historical reports the Palazzo had been built by the Capponi family as their home. Originally it was a whole structure until after Gino Capponi’s death in 1876 when it was divided into apartments, offices, etc.

In 1939 32 individual units within the main Palazzo were registered in the Land Registrar, but the Limonaia was not among them.

In the recently acquired drawings the building is shown as being included in the premises of the whole complex, those represented as common areas, such as the cellars, the porter’s lodge, the coach house and the main stairwell with the dance hall and the garden. This is due to the fact that in those times these items could not be registered in the census.

The Limonaia at Palazzo Capponi is now a private residence.