The Horticultural Garden (Giardino dell'Orticultura) is located in Florence in via Bolognese, 17 with an entrance facing via Vittorio Emanuele.
In 1852, having ascertained the spread of the practice for the art of gardening, the Accademia dei Georgofili appointed a commission with the task of forming a horticultural society in Tuscany: the Tuscan Society of Horticulture. Hence the need to activate a vegetable garden or experimental garden, which materialized in 1859, the year in which the company was granted a lease on land located outside the San Gallo gate at the beginning of via Bolognese owned by the Marquis Ludovico Ginori Lisci and the Marquise Marianna Venturi.
After three years of work, the Company had built a planter, a vineyard and a pomerium and had planted eccentric and rare ornamental plants in the lower part, towards the city.
A radical reorganization of the garden took place starting from 1876 with the main purpose of being able to host future national exhibitions and prestigious exhibitions. In 1880 the Italian Horticultural Federation organized the first national exhibition in Florence and precisely to honor the task worthily, the Tuscan Company decided to complete its garden with the construction of a large tepidarium (greenhouse in iron and glass) that had not precedents in Italy. A subscription was promoted among the partners in order to find the necessary funds for the new construction. The task of drawing up the project was entrusted to the engineer and architect Giacomo Roster and carried out by the Officine Michelucci in Pistoia, with the cast iron columns of the Lorenzetti foundry, also in Pistoia. The tepidarium has a rectangular base and measures 38.50x17 meters, with a covered area that touches 650 m2. The interior, which was heated by stoves, is embellished by two basins with niches decorated with spongy rocks, a tribute to Mannerist architecture, the work of the Florentine carver Francesco Marini. In total, 9,700 pieces were assembled, with eight tons of cylindrical iron supporting the structure. After the inauguration on May 19, 1880, the chronicler of La Nazione defined it as a "crystal palace