Giardino di San Marco, Renaissance garden in Florence, Italy

Giardino di San Marco was a garden in Florence between today's Via Cavour and Via San Gallo, roughly between the Casino Mediceo and Palazzo Socci. The land had been a green area since the Middle Ages, known by the old toponym Cafaggio, meaning park or hunting reserve. A grey stone plaque on a cream-coloured wall, with a leafy shrub at its base, records that the garden flourished in the second half of the 15th century.

In 1475, Lorenzo de Medici acquired the land from the monks of San Marco and turned it into an art school filled with ancient sculptures. In the 19th century the site was rebuilt and became home to the court that still occupies it today.

The garden once served as a place where young artists studied and copied ancient sculptures from the Medici collection. Today, little remains to remind visitors of that past, as the building now functions as a court of law.

The site sits in central Florence and is easy to reach on foot from nearby churches and museums. Because the building is an active court, public access is not permitted and there is nothing to visit from inside.

A plaque on Via Cavour and another in the inner courtyard near Palazzo Socci mark where the garden stood. The story goes that the teenage Michelangelo copied an old faun's head, opening its mouth to show tongue and teeth; Lorenzo joked that old men rarely keep such perfect teeth, so the boy broke one and drilled the gum before Lorenzo came round again.