Giardino San Francesco di Paola, Former convent with garden in Bellosguardo, Italy.

Giardino San Francesco di Paola is a former Minim convent on the Bellosguardo hill, reached through a gate on piazza San Francesco di Paola. A grey-plastered villa facade faces a cypress avenue flanked by restored rural buildings; a barrel-vaulted androne with Hildebrand reliefs leads to the former cloister loggia, beyond which a semicircular lawn is framed by two raised steps. The garden is an English-style park of tall groves, lawns and winding paths leading to statues.

The Minimi monks received the land in 1583 as a gift from the Strozzi family and built their monastic community there. In the late 1800s, sculptor Adolf Hildebrand acquired the property and transformed it into a working artist's residence and creative space.

The garden is named after Francesco di Paola, founder of the Minimi order, whose monks settled here in 1583. Sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand moved the 17th-century statue of the saint from the piazza to just inside the gate. He also carved the bas-reliefs in the barrel-vaulted entrance passage, and the loggia behind it carries further sculpture.

The grounds are walkable with unpaved paths that wind through changing elevations and sections. The site is best explored during daylight hours when natural light illuminates the buildings and garden spaces throughout the property.

From elevated spots within the gardens, the view extends far across Florence toward the city's core landmarks and historic buildings in the distance. These viewpoints are tucked into the property's landscape, creating unexpected moments of connection to the broader urban panorama.