History of Garzoni Garden
Designed in the eighteenth century by the Lucca architect, Ottaviano Diodati, the garden opens up like a breathtaking stage set, with water plays and large starry pools. The majestic Villa Garzoni, also known as the Villa of a Hundred Windows, could not be graced with anything less than the magnificent garden which is still splendidly intact. The garden was laid out when the villa was built in the seventeenth century by the Garzoni family, originating from Pescia and of Ghibelline leanings, which after the death of Castruccio Castracani had suffered the confiscation of their goods, banishment and exile. Having taken refuge in Lucca, where the members of the family had risen to the highest ranks of office, when they decided to build a villa the ancient taste for provocation and challenge led them to select this site on the ancient border between the Grand Duchy and the Republic of Lucca. The first certain record of the villa dates to 1633 and to the Marquis Romano di Alessandro Garzoni. The latter was probably also the first architect of the garden, the main lines of which were already traced out in 1652, later enhanced by statues and magnificent water plays in the following century. The atmosphere of carefree delight of the villa reached its peak in the pavilion of the Baths, where the ladies and gentlemen could take their ease and engage in exchanging coy glances amidst jets of water, mirrors and verdant mazes.