A WALK TROUGH FLORENCE
Palazzo della Signoria or
Palazzo Vecchio has a tower of
94 meters and a simple front
facing the square. It is an
austere building and the main
complex in Piazza della
Signoria. Today the Palazzo
Vecchio is the seat of the
municipal government. Palazzo
Vecchio is connected with the
Pitti Palace through the Vasari
Corridor which brings through
the Uffizi and over the Ponte
Vecchio to the other side of the
Arno
San Miniato al Monte is
a basilica standing atop
one of the highest points
in the city. It has been
described as one of the
finest Romanesque
structures and one of the
most beautiful churches
in Italy. There is an
adjoining Olivetan mona
stery, seen to the right of
the basilica when
ascending the stairs.
Santa Maria Novella is situated
just across from the rail
station which shares its name.
Chronologically, it is the first great
basilica in Florence, and is the
city's principal Dominican church.
The church, the adjoining cloister,
and chapterhouse contain a store
of art treasures and funerary
monuments. Especially famous
are frescoes by masters of
Gothic and early Renaissance.
They were financed through the
generosity of the most important
Florentine families, who ensured
themselves of funerary chapels
on consecrated ground.
The Arte della Lana was the wool guild of florence during the late middle ages and in
the Renaissance it was one of the seven greater Arti ("trades") of Florence, separate
from the Arti Minori (the "lesser trades"). The Arte della Lana dealt in woollen cloth and
cooperated with the other corporations of bankers and merchants in administering the
commune, both under the Potestà and the Republic of Florence.
The Ponte Vecchio, the oldest of Florence's six bridges, is one of the city's best known
images. Probably going back to Roman times with its stone pillars and wooden planks; it
was built in stone but then newly destroyed by a flood in 1333. It was built again twelve
years later, perhaps by Neri da Fioravante (or Taddeo Gaddi, according to Giorgio
Vasari).
ORSANMICHELE (or "Kitchen Garden of Saint Michael) from the contraction in Tuscan dialect of
the orto) is a church near Piazza della Signoria. The building was constructed on the site of
the ’Orto’ of the monastery of San Michele, which is now gone.
Located on the Via Calzaiuoli in Florence, the church was originally built as a grain market in 1337
by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione. Between 1380 and 1404 it was
converted into a church used as the chapel of Florence's powerful craft and trade guilds. On the
ground floor of the square building are the 13th-century arches that originally formed the loggia of
the grain market. The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city's
municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege. Late in the 14th century, the
guilds were charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to embellish the
facades of the church. The sculptures seen today are copies, the originals having been removed to
museums (see below).
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The Palazzo del BARGELLO, which has housed the Museum since its foundation in 1865, is one of the oldest
public buildings in Florence , with origins closely linked to the emergence of the Comune. After Florence
had set itself up as a free Comune, beginning to mint its own money and in its new-found independence
moving towards a period of major economic expansion, it established a constitution with a Podestà and a
Capitano del Popolo at its head. Thus the palazzo was built, to provide a fitting premises for the Capitano
del Popolo, nearly fifty years before Palazzo Vecchio.
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PALAZZO DAVANZATI was purchased in 1904 and restored by the antique dealer Elia Volpi, who entirely
furnished it and opened it to the public in 1910 as Museum of the Old Florentine House. After alternate
events, which comprised also the dispersion of the furniture pieces, the palace was purchased in 1951 by
the State that reorganised it and opened it once more to the public in 1956.
Its most important feature is the architectural structure that represents an interesting example of 13th
century home showing the transition stage from the medieval tower house to the Renaissance building. The
original facade was decorated with a three-arch loggia, now closed that was once open and used as a
shop. A 16th century loggia replaces the usual medieval battlements at the top of the building.
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The palace was designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo[1] for Cosimo de' Medici, head of
the Medici banking family, and was built between 1444[2] and 1484. It was well known for its
stone masonry includes rustication and ashlar.[3] The tripartite elevation used here expresses
the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and classicism on human scale. This tripartite
division is emphasized by horizontal stringcourses that divide the building into stories of
decreasing height. The transition from the rusticated masonry of the ground floor to the more
delicately refined stonework of the third floor makes the building seem lighter and taller as
the eye moves upward to the massive cornice that caps and clearly defines the building's
outline. The Palazzo Pitti (Italian pronunciation: [paˈlattso ˈpitti]), in English sometimes called
the Pitti Palace, is a vast mainly Renaissance palace inFlorence, Italy. It is situated on the
south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the
present palazzodates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an
ambitious Florentine banker.
The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the chief residence of the
ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later
generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions.
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the most important church of Florence. It was
was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and
completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The
exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of
green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic
Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.
Few people know the huge building of the Uffizi was not created as a museum. It was ordered in
1560 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, to house the administrative and
judiciary offices of Florence, the “uffizi” (Italian for “offices”). At the time when the grandiose
building was being built, the Medici hegemony was secure.
Cosimo called upon his favorite artist, Giorgio Vasari, to design the u-shaped building we still can
admire today. The great architect also built the secret Corridor that joins the Uffizi to the Pitti
Palace running above the Ponte Vecchio, the church of Santa Felicita and the many buildings on
the way to the palace before ending at the Boboli Gardens. The “Corridoio Vasariano” was built to
celebrate the marriage of Cosimo’s son, Francesco, to Giovanna
d’Austria.
The Pazzi Chapel (Italian: Cappella dei Pazzi) is a
religious building in Florence, central Italy,
considered to be one of the masterpieces
of Renaissance architecture. It is located in the "first
cloister" of the Basilica di Santa Croce.
PONTE SANTA TRINITA 1567-71
The Ponte Santa Trìnita (Italian for Holy Trinity Bridge, named for the
ancient church in the nearest stretch of via de' Tornabuoni) is
a Renaissance bridge inFlorence, Italy, spanning the Arno. The Ponte
Santa Trìnita is the oldest elliptic arch bridge in the world, the three
flattened ellipses giving the structure its celebrated elegant
appearance. The outside spans each measure 29 m (95 ft) with the
centre span being 32 m (105 ft) in length.[1] The two neighbouring
bridges are the Ponte Vecchio, to the east, and the Ponte alla
Carraia to the west.
The bridge was constructed by the Florentine architect Bartolomeo
Ammanati from 1567 to 1569. Its site, downstream of the equally
remarkable Ponte Vecchio,[2] is a major link in the medieval street
plan of Florence, which has been bridged at this site since the
thirteenth century.[3] The wooden bridge of 1252 was swept away in
a flood seven years later and was rebuilt in stone and destroyed in a
flood in 1333. The bridge of five arches constructed by Taddeo
Gaddiwas destroyed in the flood of 1557, which occasioned
Ammanati's replacement. Four ornamental statues of the Seasons
were added to the bridge in 1608, as part of the wedding
celebrations of Cosimo II de' Medici with Maria Magdalena of
Austria: Spring by Pietro
Francavilla, Summer and Autumn by Giovanni Caccini,
and Winter by Taddeo Landini.