Il Potager Royal in the Gardens

The area extends to the east and west of Cascina Medici del Vascello, where orchards and vegetable plots cover around 10 hectares.

The current project to restore the ancient plots according to their original layout takes the form of a square made up of cultivated plots, water ponds, fountains, fruit trees espaliers and pergolas where flowers and vegetables are grown.

The vegetable gardens recreate a contemporary version of the original 17th-18th century potager where produce was grown for eating.
The recreation of historical references, the geometrical layouts, the greenery and the fountains, as well as the farmed plots, provide an open-air museum that changes with the seasons with different produce and blossoms.

In the orchard the landscape changes. A vertical pattern leads visitors to the center of the Potager Royal, to the path connecting the farm to the Alley and the canal that links together the remains of the Fountain of Hercules to the foundations of the Temple of Diana.

Careful examination of ancient documentation has helped experts to identify and reinstate the species that were originally grown in these orchards and vegetable gardens, thus reviving the historical vocation of the place that appeared irretrievably lost.

Nothing is thrown out and the fruits are used to make preserves or also made directly available to visitors in exchange for a free offer.

The decorative portion of this area, designed according to the principles of agroecology, was designed to be the site of leisure, aesthetic, educational, historical, and gastronomic activities.

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