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Eleonora da Toledo



In February 1550 Eleonora da Toledo, Cosimo I de` Mdici`s wife, bought Palazzo Pitti from Bonaccorso Pitti because she thought that the quarter of Oltrarno was more salubrious than the crowded city centre on the other bank of the Arno River. Eleonora had been suffering from pulmonary bleeding since she had caught TBC and her children had poor health, as well (she had already lost two infant babies).
She also wanted to provide her family with a palace that could compete with other magnificent European palaces, such as Fontainbleau and Hampton Court, with their gorgeous gardens, and with Papal gardens in Rome. Palazzo Pitti disposed of a vast space for the creation of a garden worthy of a Duke.

Tribolo was commissioned to project the garden and when he died in September 1550, a few moths after the palace had been purchased, Davide Fortini received the task of finishing the works following Tribolo`s plan. In April 1551, the main structure of garden was finished: the old quarry the stones for the palace were taken from was transformed into the Amphitheatre, a U-shaped basin mentioned in a document as "mezzo tondo" (half round, hemisphere). For the quarry, Tribolo planned to use the hippodrome shape Bramante had already used in the "Cortile del Belvedere" (Courtyard of the Belvedere) in Rome and Antonio da Sangallo had used in Villa Madama.

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