This old palace
Florence's Palazzo Vecchio
The late 13th-century Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) is a imposing rough-hewn fortress in severe Gothic style, replete with crenellations and battlements and highlighted by a 308-foot campanile that was a supreme feat of engineering in its day.
It served as Florence's city hall for many years (a role it fulfills again today) and then home to Duke Cosimo I de' Medici (that's Giambologna's bronze statue of him on horseback anchoring the middle of the piazza outside).
He lived here for 10 years beginning in 1540, when much of the interior was remodeled to the elegant Renaissance style you see today, before moving to new accommodations in the Palazzo Pitti.
You enter through the stunning main courtyard, with intricately carved columns and extraordinarily colorful 16th-century frescos by Vasari; the central focus is the fountain of a Putto Holding a Dolphin, a copy of Verrocchio's original (displayed upstairs).
The highlight of the interior is the massive first-floor Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred), whose rich frescoes by Vassari depict Florence's history; formerly the city's council chambers where the 500-man assembly once gathered, it's still used for government and civic functions. The statue of The Genius of Victory is by Michelangelo (1533–34); commissioned for the tomb of Pope Julius II, it was later acquired by the Medici.
Upstairs, the richly decorated and frescoed salons, such as the private quarters of Cosimo's wife, Eleanora de Toledo, offer an intriguing glimpse into how the ruling class of Renaissance Florence lived.
Piazza della Signoria
tel. +39-055-276-8465 or +39-055-276-8224, www.comune.fi.it
Closed Thursday afternoons (after 2pm)
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This article was last updated in January 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
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Copyright © 1998–2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
