The Parco Demidoff is the reason to come to Pratolino. Originally laid out in the 1570s by the architect Bernardo Buontalenti for Francesco I de' Medici as an extravagant private retreat, the park covered an enormous area and was filled with fountains, grottos, automata, and garden sculptures of extraordinary ingenuity. Most of the original hydraulic machinery has long since gone, but the atmosphere of a great Mannerist garden survives intact.
The park today extends over more than thirty hectares of wooded hillside above the Via Bolognese. Well-marked paths cross the grounds, passing through dense ilex and chestnut woodland before opening onto clearings around the remaining sculptures and the ponds. The Buontalenti chapel — a small octagonal building with a distinctive lantern — and the steps of the Pan fountain are among the surviving sixteenth-century elements. The park is run by the Metropolitan City of Florence and is open on Sundays and public holidays from April to September; admission is free.