Storico Giardino Garzoni
The two Pescias
Popularly known as Florence and Lucca, they have been identified on the basis of archive documents as the Tuscan Pescia and the Lucchese Pescia, that is the two local rivers that flow together into the Fucecchio marsh. The Tuscan Pescia can be recognised by the Florentine Marzocco, and that of Lucca by the Dog. They are represented by two full-bodied seated women pouring an abundant stream of water from cornucopias into the terraced pools beneath. With an agile and simple natural movement, this water cascades in “veils” from one pool to the next. The other singular device used to stimulate the cascade of the water consists of a central stone channel that recalls the similar system used in the Moghul gardens of Jaipur, Srinagar and Fatehpur-Sikri in India. Between the two series of staggered pools that border the slope leading from the Pescias to the Satyrs below, we can also glimpse a huge gargoyle concealed by the vegetation, its features set in a mocking smile that reveals teeth made of natural chalk. Beneath the pools and above the cistern of a capacity of 2,000 barrels of water, is a group of four swans in different poses playing and spraying each other with water.