The Indian

At the far end of Cascine Park, stands an oriental-style and eccentric-looking funerary monument, in memory of the sad and short story of a traveler coming from remote India. In 1870, young Indian prince Rajaram Chuttraputti of Kolhapur, came to visit Florence. He was staying at the Grand Hotel of Piazza Ognissanti, and in his room he died, probably because of a bad lung infection. He was only 21.

In respect to the Hindu tradition, his body was cremated at the conjunction of two water courses (the Arno river and the Mugnone torrent) and in that same place sculptor Fuller erected the small temple we can see today.

From that moment, the area around that spot has always been called The Indian.