Olfactory path

Every city has a unique scent, a unique aroma born from the encounter between nature and memory, between stone and sap. In Lucca, this invisible, sensorial dimension was enriched in the early nineteenth century, when Elisa Bonaparte Kisses, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, initiated a profound urban and cultural renewal. A great lover of botany, Elisa also transformed the city through the plant essences, importing rare and fragrant plants from all over the world, enriching gardens, courtyards and living rooms.

The olfactory journey was created to rediscover this scented trace of history: a green and sensitive map, made of magnolias, camellias, wisteria, plane trees, geraniums, chrysanthemums, peonies, dahlias and ginkgo, which still today tell the story of the refined taste and botanical imagination of the Napoleonic era.

Elite gardens, Empire scents

In the portrait preserved at the National Museum of Palazzo Mansi, Elisa is depicted next to a pot of geranium: a choice that is anything but decorative. That flower, already well-known but not widely used, became with her a constant presence on the balconies and living rooms of the new imperial Lucca. Like her inspiration Joséphine in Malmaison, Elisa transformed the Royal Villa of Marlia in a true nursery of exotic plants: magnolias, mimosas, wisterias and chrysanthemums flowered there for the first time, later spreading to the city palaces.

Dai gardens of Froussard Palace, born next to the new Porta Elisa in 1811, at internal courtyards visible from the city wallsEvery corner of the city began to smell of a new world. And it was in that context that a passion for floral design was born, with plants that until then had been relegated to botanical gardens now entering living rooms, squares, and public rituals.

Villa Bottini and the monumental tree

Along Via Elisa, the park opens up Villa Bottini, purchased in 1811 by Felice Baciocchi, Elisa's husband. In addition to magnolias and camellias, a plane tree was planted here, which today is the most imposing in the Lucca area: over 7 meters in circumference and more than 25 meters in height, a true living witness of the Principality.

Botanical Garden: the science of perfume

The Botanical Garden of Lucca, designed by Elisa and created in 1820 under Maria Luisa of Bourbon, still preserves species introduced during the Napoleonic period. The plants come partly from the gardens of the Royal Villa of Marlia, others were sent by Giuseppe Bonaparte, then king of Naples, who personally supervised a botanical expedition from Caserta.

Ginkgo biloba, magnolias, osmunda regalis, peonies, and camellias thus enriched the city's plant heritage. Each plant evokes a connection to the world, to colonial routes, and to the scientific and ornamental trends of the time.

The Walls become landscape

It was always Elisa who first wanted the transformation of the Walls of Lucca in a public and green place. At the end of 1810, the French engineer Charles Sambucy He designed the so-called "Passeggio delle Mura" between the San Colombano and San Donato bastions. The parapets were lowered to enjoy the external view and were planted lime trees, plane trees, tulip trees, paulownias and magnolias, which were added to the elms and poplars already present.

For Elisa, “the trees were the ornament that forms the amenity of the wall”.

Blossoms and rites of the modern city

Walking around Lucca today, one still encounters living testimonies of that season: the bicentennial magnolia in the cloister of the former church of Santa Maria Bianca (now the Pascoli school), the spectacular flowering of Corso Garibaldi, or the intense scent of the wisteria in Piazza Antelminelli and Piazza San Giovanni, between March and April.

Lucca has also become, through these plants, a city "to look at, to walk through, and to smell": a cultural landscape that renews itself with each season.

Spring in Bloom: Elisa's Wisteria

Among the most spectacular essences introduced in Lucca during the Napoleonic period there is also the wisteria, which arrived in Europe from China and was made famous in the gardens of Malmaison, the residence of Joséphine Bonaparte. From there, the plant also reached Royal Villa of Marlia, where it found fertile ground to spread.

Even today, in spring, Lucca is tinged with its spectacular blooms: the purple racemes of Palazzo Micheletti in Piazza Antelminelli and the white variety of Piazza San Giovanni They offer a spectacle of colors and scents that enchants residents and visitors alike. The two plants almost seem to compete for the public's gaze, while the intense, sweet fragrance of wisteria wafts through the air, transforming the squares into elegant open-air salons.

A capital in bloom

In the transformation desired by Elisa, also Napoleon Square has a central role. In place of an entire demolished block, a large open square was created in front of the Ducal Palace: a symbol of power and authority. The elm trees planted to delimit the space were later replaced by plane trees, which today frame the square in greenery. Inside the palace, Elisa also commissioned a private theater, where Niccolò Paganini performed.

A project between history, botany and memory

This path was born from an idea of ​​the historian Roberta Martinelli and the perfumer Giuliana Pardini, for the Association Napoleon and his timeThe historical and botanical research, conducted in collaboration with Prof. Paolo Emilio Tomei, professor of Botany at the University of Pisa, have allowed us to reconstruct with precision the plant essences from the Napoleonic period: some introduced for the first time in Italy, others revalued and spread thanks to the Bonapartes.

An itinerary to be experienced with all the senses—especially the sense of smell—to rediscover Elisa's city through the more subtle and persistent language of memory: the perfume.