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Florence's Boboli Gardens pay tribute to ancient gardens

Show in Florence's Boboli Gardens

Florence, August 17 - Florence's world-famous Boboli Gardens are paying tribute to their predecessors, with an exhibition dedicated to gardens of the ancient world.

Although the Boboli Park is one of the first and finest examples of formal 17th-century gardens, the exhibit looks at much earlier concepts, from the Mesopotamian world through to Imperial Rome.

More than 150 archaeological findings are in the show, dug up from the Pompeii sites and Herculaneum, and lended out from Italian and foreign institutes around the world.

The event, takes place in the Limonaia (Orangery), also features a series of reconstructions and models, contemplating the development of gardens from the 1st millennium BC to Ancient Rome.

It uses a series of detailed examples to illustrate the change, starting with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, near present-day Baghdad. Considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, these were theoretically built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC as a gift to his wife.

It moves on to look at the two different kinds of garden common in ancient Greece. The first of these were small grounds attached to places of worship, in which herbs and plants were grown for religious purposes.

The other kind were sites linked to academies and places of learning, in which plants were cultivated for research and study.

Exhibit will display recent findings from Pompeii. Art works hidden by the Vesuvius lava flow in 79A.D.. But it was during Roman times that the modern idea of gardens grew, as private escapes of beauty where you could relax, with fountains, plants, benches and secret alcoves.

Extensive studies and reconstructions there have revealed that gardens in Ancient Rome were not just pleasing to the eye; they were also used for growing herbs and plants for a variety of practical purposes.

The exhibition builds on work of a team of experts at Pompeii, who have brought two other gardens to life in recent years.

The exhibition runs until October 28.

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