Villa di Pratolino

Michel de Montaigne, one of the earliest visitors to leave a description of Pratolino, saw it in 1581,[2] and considered it to have been built, he thought when visiting Villa d'Este, "precisely in rivalry with this place".

[5] In 1773, some of its sculptures were removed to adorn the extension of the Boboli Gardens and the place was left to fall into decay;[5] by 1798 a German visitor was impressed with the romantic ruin of it.

In 1872 the complex was sold by the heirs of Leopold II, former Grand Duke of Tuscany, to Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov who restored the Paggeria, or pages' lodgings of the former residence, as the Villa Demidoff di Pratolino.

The complicated iconography of the garden is embodied in the brooding statue of "Appennino", a colossal sculpture by Giambologna[7] built in 1579–1580, which originally seemed to emerge from the vaulted rockwork niche that once surrounded him.

Multiple grottoes with water-driven automata, a water organ, surprise jets that drenched visitors' finery when the fontanieri opened secret spigots,[8] offered striking juxtapositions of Art with imitations of rugged Nature.