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Architectural
Treasures - The city of
Florence is dominated by the
towers of its many palaces and
churches and by the huge dome of
the cathedral of Santa Maria del
Fiore. A Gothic structure with an
exterior ornately decorated with
red, green, and white marble, the
cathedral was begun in 1296 by
the Florentine architect Arnolfo
di Cambio, continued on a
modified plan by his successors,
and crowned with the great dome
(1420-1461), designed by Filippo
Brunelleschi. The facade,
although not built until the late
19th century, is faithful in
style to the rest of the edifice.
The cathedral is the most
imposing structure on the right
bank of the Arno. Beside the
cathedral stands the 14th-century
campanile, or bell tower, which
was begun by Giotto and continued
by Andrea Pisano. Adorned with
exquisite bas-reliefs, the
campanile (82 m/269 ft high) is
one of the most beautiful in
Italy. The octagonal baptistery
of San Giovanni, facing the
cathedral, dates mainly from the
11th to the 15th century,
although some parts were built as
early as the 5th century; it is
noted for doors of gilded bronze,
especially the east door, called
the Gate to Paradise, which was
executed by the Florentine
goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti and
depicts sculpted scenes from the
Old Testament.
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Medieval
and Renaissance Palaces
and Sculpture
Near the cathedral
is the Bargello, or
Palazzo del
Podestà, a
fortress-like building
of the 13th and 14th
centuries, which houses
a National Museum. The
latter has collections
of enameled terracottas
by the della Robbia
family and sculpture by
Donatello. The Piazza
della Signoria,
containing the Fountain
of Neptune (completed
1576), is dominated by
the majestic Palazzo
Vecchio, or Palazzo
della Signoria, a sturdy
yet graceful building
surmounted by a
crenelated 94 m (308 ft)
bell tower. Built
between 1299 and 1314,
this palace became the
seat of the town council
in 1550; later the
Italian Chamber of
Deputies met there from
1865 to 1871. The vast
halls and state
apartments are ornately
decorated in the style
of the late
Renaissance.
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Opposite
is the Loggia dell'Orcagna (late
14th century), also called Loggia
dei Lanzi, a roofed structure
open at the sides, which houses a
number of statues, among them the
bronze Perseus (completed 1554)
by Benvenuto Cellini and the Rape
of the Sabine Women (1579-1583)
by Giambologna.
Art
Galleries, Bridges, and
Churches
Between
the Palazzo Vecchio and the Arno
stands the Palazzo degli Uffizi,
built late in the 16th century to
house government offices and law
courts. It is famous for its
art gallery, the Uffizi Gallery,
one of the finest in Europe,
which contains an unsurpassed
collection of works by the
greatest painters of Italy and a
rich selection of works by
Flemish and French masters. The
nearby Ponte Vecchio,
which is lined with goldsmiths'
and jewelers' shops, was built in
1345; it is the only bridge in
Florence spared during World War
II and leads across the Arno to
the Palazzo Pitti on the left
bank. This building, begun in
1458 and subsequently much
enlarged, was the residence of
the grand dukes of Tuscany from
1550 to 1859. It contains another
famous art collection,
particularly rich in works by
Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Il
Perugino, Titian, and Tintoretto.
Behind the Pitti are the vast
Boboli Gardens, used for outdoor
concerts during the music
festival held each year in
May.
On
the right bank of the Arno, in a
kind of half-circle around the
cathedral and the Palazzo
Vecchio, are many famous churches
and palaces. Noteworthy are the
13th-century Gothic Church of
Santa Trinità, possessing
a fine, luminous interior and a
16th century Baroque facade; and
Santa Maria Novella (13th - 15th
century), with a coloured marble
facade and richly decorated
cloisters, one of the most
beautiful churches in the city.
Eastwards are the 15th century
church and cloisters of San
Lorenzo, designed by
Brunelleschi. The adjoining
structure is the Medici Chapel,
private chapel and burial place
of the famous Medici family.
Above the crypt of the Medici
Chapel is the New Sacristy, for
which Michelangelo was both
architect and sculptor; the
sacristy contains the tombs of
Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of
Abruzzo, with figures of Dawn and
Dusk; and of Valiano de' Medici,
Duke of Nemours, with figures of
Day and Night
(1520-1534).
The
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, built by
Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici
in the mid-15th century, faces
San Lorenzo across a large
piazza. Typical of the residences
built by prominent families at
that time, the ground floor is
strongly fortified, with a
graceful courtyard, and private
apartments occupying the upper
floors. It houses the Medici
Museum. A few streets to the
northeast is the former Dominican
monastery of San Marco, also
largely the work of Michelozzo.
It is now a museum in which are
preserved works by the two monks
and painters Fra Angelico and Fra
Bartolommeo, as well as the cell
once occupied by the preacher and
reformer Girolamo Savonarola.
Nearby are the Spedale degli
Innocenti (orphanage), with
Brunelleschi's graceful portico
decorated with ten of Andrea
della Robbia's celebrated blue
and white terracotta medallions;
the Gallery of the Academy of
Fine Arts, housing many works by
Michelangelo, including his David
(1501-1504); and the
Archaeological Museum, with an
outstanding Etruscan
collection.
To
the south, near the Arno, stands
the handsome Franciscan church of
Santa Croce, built, except for a
modern facade, in the 13th and
14th centuries. This church, with
an interior of classic Franciscan
simplicity and which is decorated
with frescoes by Giotto and other
masters, is called the Pantheon
of Florence because it contains
the tombs of Michelangelo,
Niccolò Machiavelli,
Galileo, the poet and dramatist
Conte Vittorio Alfieri, and
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, as
well as monuments to many other
famous Italians.
Libraries
Florence contains one of the
greatest libraries in Italy, the
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,
with approximately 4 million
books and pamphlets and many
thousands of manuscripts, maps,
and letters. Other libraries are
the Laurentian Library,
containing a priceless collection
of books and manuscripts
assembled by Cosimo, Piero, and
Lorenzo de' Medici; the
Biblioteca Marciana in the
convent of San Marco; and the
Moreniana, which is particularly
important for local history.
Thousands of documents pertaining
to the history of Florence and
Tuscany are preserved in the
State Archives. The University of
Florence, established in 1923, is
the successor of an institution
chartered in 1321. Florence is
the seat also of a conservatory
of music and of the Istituto
Geografico Militare, which is
world famous for fine
mapmaking.
History
Although Florence was founded
in ancient times, it was of
little importance before the 11th
century. By the second half of
that century it was governed by a
council composed of nobles and
intellectuals that nominally
functioned in the name of the
people, thus making the city a
republic.
Struggles
and Fortunes
In the 12th century the
Florentines captured the nearby
town of Fiesole and began their
attempt to conquer all the broad,
fertile plain drained by the
Arno. Internally the republic was
divided by the struggle of its
leading families for power, and
in 1300 civil war broke out in
Florence between two Guelph
factions, the Neri (Blacks) and
Bianchi (Whites). Dante, one of
the defeated Bianchi, was exiled
from the city in 1302. Despite
its internal strife, the city
prospered. Industry-especially
woollen-cloth manufacturing-and
banking, through which many
Florentines later amassed great
fortunes, were added to an
ever-expanding commerce. In
addition, the organization of
merchants and artisans into
powerful guilds gave the city an
unexpected measure of stability.
The wood guild, the richest of
all, employed some 30,000 workers
and owned 200 shops at the
beginning of the 14th century.
Merchants and bankers thus took a
commanding lead in civic affairs
and began to beautify the city.
The republic warred repeatedly
with Milan in the 14th and 15th
centuries; in 1406 it finally
acquired Pisa, downstream on the
Arno, thus winning a long-coveted
outlet to the sea.
Flourishing
Commerce, Flowering Art
Considerable friction had
developed meanwhile between the
workers, who felt themselves
exploited, and the wealthy
classes. The conflict came to a
head in 1433, when the
aristocratic party exiled Cosimo
de' Medici, a wealthy
merchant-banker and the leader of
the popular party. Cosimo
returned in 1434, exiled his
opponents, and in alliance with
the poorer classes effectively
became the ruler of the republic,
although remaining nominally a
private citizen. The Medici
dominated the city, except for
brief periods of exile, for the
next three centuries. Cosimo was
succeeded by his son Piero and
his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici,
called Lorenzo the Magnificent, a
great patron of learning and the
arts. Lorenzo reduced the
republican government to a shadow
and by an ambitious foreign
policy succeeded for a time in
making Florence the balance of
power among Italian states. The
Florentine gold coin, the florin,
became the standard of trade
throughout Europe, and the
commerce of Florence embraced the
known world. The great flowering
of Renaissance art in
architecture, painting, and
sculpture took place within
little more than the span of the
15th century.
Lorenzo's
son and successor, Piero, made
humiliating concessions to
Charles VIII of France, who
invaded Italy in 1494; in that
year the outraged populace drove
Piero and his family from the
city. Girolamo Savonarola, prior
of the Dominican monastery of San
Marco, emerged as the leading
personality in Florence after
Piero's downfall. Savonarola,
however, who had long inveighed
against the luxury of Lorenzo's
court, came into conflict with
the pope and gradually lost
popular favour. In 1498 he was
seized by a mob, tried, and
executed. The Medici, returned to
power by a Spanish army in 1512,
were again exiled in 1527, and
permanently restored in 1531. The
title grand duke of Tuscany was
bestowed on the head of the
Medici family by the pope in
1569.
Florence
Since the Medici
The Medici ruled Tuscany
until their line died out in
1737. They were succeeded by
members of the imperial Austrian
House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Grand
Duke Ferdinand III was driven
from his throne by the French in
1799 and restored in 1814. His
successor, Leopold II, expelled
in 1849, returned with Austrian
troops, but he was finally
deposed in 1859 during the
struggle for Italian
independence. Florence was the
capital of Italy under King
Victor Emmanuel II from 1865 to
1871, when Rome became the
capital. In World War II most of
Florence's monuments escaped
damage, but all its bridges
(except the Ponte Vecchio) were
destroyed in 1944. In 1966 a
major flood damaged numerous art
treasures in Florence, but many
were skillfully restored in
succeeding years. Population
(1993 estimate) 392,800.
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