Piazza della Signoria is the square of Florence, the seat of civil power and the heart of the social life of the city. It is located in the central part of medieval Florence, south of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. In the past it has taken on various names, such as Piazza dei Priori or Piazza del Granduca.
Thanks to the archaeological finds made starting from 1974, it was
possible to establish that the first activities in the square area date
back to the Neolithic and that the current square constituted an
important area of the Roman city, with a thermal plant from the Hadrian
era and a fullonica of industrial dimensions near the theater, the
remains of which were found under Palazzo Vecchio (excavations of
Palazzo Vecchio). Subsequently (4th-5th century) the baths and the
fullonica were abandoned and reused by poor buildings and craft
activities, while a large paleo-Christian basilica (about 27x50 meters)
was built.
The basilica seems to have remained in use until the
7th century and was then replaced by a small church (about 9x16 metres)
dedicated to the church of Santa Cecilia (dated to the 8th century and
documented in the 9th century). From the tenth century the process of
urban reconstruction began which led to the definition of the medieval
quarter which was later demolished for the construction of the square.
Archaeological excavations have brought to light several towers, houses
and the remains of two churches (Santa Cecilia and San Romolo) with
their respective cemetery areas. A plaque almost on the corner with via
de' Calzaiuoli commemorates Saint Romulus, bishop and martyr, more or
less where the church was and where Palazzo Bombicci stands today.
In the northern area of the square there was the district of the
Ghibellines Uberti with the turris maior (the excavations, carried out
on several occasions from 1974 to 1989, have not yet received a complete
edition).
The square began to take on its current form around
1268, when the houses of the Ghibellines that stood in the area were
demolished by the Guelphs victorious in Benevento, but without giving
the area a coherent and unitary layout, so much so that it was only
paved in 1385 The Palazzo della Signoria was built hand in hand, so the
square became the center of the city's political life, in antithesis
with the religious center of Piazza del Duomo and the commercial square
that was the Mercato Vecchio, where today stands Piazza della Repubblica
. In the 14th century, the Loggia della Signoria was added, for public
ceremonies, and the Court of Merchandise, an institution designed to
settle civil and commercial disputes.
Seat of civil power, the
square was also the seat of public executions, the most famous of which
is that of May 23, 1498, when Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and burned
for heresy (a plaque on the square, in front of the Fountain of Neptune,
recalls this event) in the same place where, with his disciples, he had
operated the so-called Bonfire of the Vanities, setting fire to many
books, poems, game tables, clothes, etc.
The interventions in the
following centuries mainly concerned the sculptural furnishings and
culminated in the grand ducal era with the transformation of the Loggia
della Signoria into a sort of open-air museum. The construction of the
Uffizi in the mid-sixteenth century also creates a new perspective
towards the river. The square is no stranger to the 19th-century
"regeneration" of the historic centre, in the context of which
neo-Renaissance-style interventions were carried out, such as the
Palazzo delle Assicurazioni in front of Palazzo Vecchio.
The central element of the square is the fourteenth-century Palazzo
Vecchio, built between 1299 and 1314 to give a worthy seat to the Priors
of the Arts, the representatives of the professional corporations which
had held the government of the city since 1282 and who used to reside in
the Bargello.
The architectural project refers to Arnolfo di
Cambio who in the last years of the 13th century was involved in the
most important Florentine construction sites: the Cathedral, Santa Croce
and the new circle of walls. The conformation of the building
reinterprets the characters of medieval fortified structures with
originality and constitutes a model for the Tuscan public palaces built
later.
In particular, the Arnolfo Tower, 95 meters high, presents
a daring architectural solution being aligned with the protruding
gallery, rather than placed in a more central position. Originally the
Palazzo was to appear as a separate volume, while subsequent expansions
leaned against the rear facade, filling the entire block up to via dei
Leoni. At the time of the Savonarolian Republic, in fact, the expansion
of the People's Council to five hundred members led to the construction
of the Salone dei Cinquecento above the Cortile della Dogana (1495). The
connection between the various buildings can be seen on the Via de'
Gondi side, where the Salone can be recognized by the unfinished
external facing and the large windows of the Cronaca.
The most
substantial works began in 1540, when the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici
decided to transfer the residence of the ducal family from the Palazzo
Medici in via Larga to what had been the Palazzo Pubblico. However,
these interventions concerned above all the interiors and the new part
that overlooks via della Ninna and via dei Leoni, while on piazza della
Signoria the new and precious rooms remain hidden in the severe Arnolfo
mass. The only significant modification on the façade occurred in the
19th century with the demolition of the aringhiera, a high marble
parapet with seats, built in 1323 for the official ceremonies of the
Municipality.
The Loggia della Signoria, also called Loggia dei Lanzi (because the
Lanzichenecchi camped there in 1527) or Loggia dell'Orcagna (due to an
incorrect attribution to the brother of the architect), was built
between 1376 and 1381 by Benci di Cione Dami (Orcagna's brother) and
Simone di Francesco Talenti with the function of a covered "arengario",
i.e. a balcony for haranguing the crowd during official ceremonies. From
an architectural point of view, the building combines Gothic elements,
such as the bundled pillars and the perforated crowning, with elements
of a classical matrix such as the large round arches, according to the
particular Florentine interpretation of the Gothic language.
During the sixteenth century the loggia lost its original function, once
the democratic structure disappeared, to become a sort of open-air
museum of sculptures from the Medici collection. In 1555 Cosimo I placed
Cellini's Perseus there and in 1585 Francesco I placed Giambologna's
Rape of the Sabine Women there. At the end of the eighteenth century, at
the time of Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena, a new layout was created with the
placement in the Loggia of numerous ancient sculptures transferred to
Florence from Villa Medici in Rome. Finally, the subsequent
nineteenth-century modifications consolidated the appearance of the
Gallery of the Statues which it still retains.
The Court of Merchandise was built in 1359 on the site where the Roman Theater once stood, in order to house the seat of the Court of Merchandise. The institute, founded in 1308, had the function of settling disputes between the various guilds or between members of the individual guilds. On the façade, at the top, there are copies of the coats of arms of the twenty-one guilds, plus that of the Court of Merchandise, while the originals are kept inside the Palazzo.
Palazzo Uguccioni was built for Giovanni Uguccioni starting from 1550. The original architecture of classical forms has affinities with the Roman late Renaissance style which made one think, in the past, of a design by Raphael or Michelangelo. The decorative effect of the facade of the building, moreover, is to be placed in relation to the restructuring of Piazza della Signoria commissioned by Cosimo I. Through the intercession of the Grand Duke, Uguccioni in fact obtained the right to build his own building more protruding than the adjacent ones. The rusticated ground floor is surmounted by two superimposed orders of paired Ionic and Corinthian columns. The high pedestals of the columns are finely carved with the insignia and coats of arms of the family: the anchor and the scalandrone, a sort of double rake which according to tradition would represent the ladder used by an Uguccioni, therefore called Scalandroni, to assault the walls of the enemy. Above the entrance door stands the bust of Francesco I, placed by Benedetto Uguccioni as a sign of devotion to the Grand Duke.
In front of Palazzo Vecchio is the Palazzo delle Assicurazioni
Generali. Built in 1871 on a project by the architect Landi in
neo-Renaissance style, its four floors instead of the three canonical
ones betray the modernity of the building; another deviation from the
Florentine architectural tradition are the large arches to house
commercial funds that leave no room for the traditional street bench. It
houses the historic café Rivoire.
To build it, the
fourteenth-century Tettoia dei Pisani, the ancient seat of the art of
the Cambio, and the church of Santa Cecilia were demolished.
Others
At the entrance to via dei Calzaiuoli are the Palazzo dei
Buonaguisi and the Palazzo dell'Arte dei Mercatanti on the corner. The
Palazzo and houses of the Guidacci also known as "della Meridiana", at
the corner of via delle Farine (where the main entrance is located),
overlook Piazza della Signoria.
The statues of Piazza della Signoria are not only a decorative
ensemble of the highest level, but also represent a real secular
allegorical cycle, unique of its kind in the world, which was supposed
to inspire the rulers of the city who went to Palazzo Vecchio.
Right in front of the Palazzo, on the so-called "arengario" are the
oldest sculptures, which were once located further towards the square:
they are the Marzocco and the Judith and Holofernes (about 1455-60),
both by Donatello, replaced by copies for their preciousness (the
Marzocco is kept in the Bargello, the Judith in the Palazzo Vecchio).
The Marzocco in pietra serena is a mighty lion resting a paw on the
emblem with the Florentine lily, and has now become a symbol of the
city.
The bronze Judith is a symbol of the political autonomy of
the Florentine Republic. Indeed, it was sacked from Palazzo Medici after
the first expulsion of the Medici (1495) where it adorned a fountain in
the garden, and therefore symbolizes the victory of the people against
tyrants. On the return of the Medici, although a large part of their
assets were repurchased and reunited in the collections of the family,
the Giuditta remained in the Piazza so as not to offend the
sensibilities of the people.
A second chapter of this dispute
between the Medici and the republic is represented by Michelangelo's
David, now replaced by a copy placed in the original location of the
famous sculpture. Michelangelo created it around 1500 when the
Savonarolian season was raging and its meaning is still that of the
people (symbolized by David) who, with God's help, defeat the tyrant
(Goliath). The greatness of Michelangelo's sculpture is even more
remarkable when compared to the works of Donatello and this "gigantism"
set the tone for all the other statues that were later placed in the
square.
The political theme is continued by Benvenuto Cellini's
Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi (also called with the more complete
title Perseus with the head of Medusa from 1554), commissioned by Cosimo
I after the resettlement of the Medici family in Florence in 1531:
Perseus raises his head of the defeated Medusa from which the snakes
emerge, a clear symbol of the "clean cut" with the republican
experience, sadly known for the proverbial city discords that had always
undermined a true democracy.
The Hercules and Cacus by Baccio
Bandinelli (1533) is located next to the David and represents victory
with strength and cunning against the wicked, in a symbology taken from
the Twelve Labors. The sculpture had to be initially created by
Michelangelo, but due to his continuous commitments it was instead
entrusted to Baccio Bandinelli, who tried to emulate the powerful style
of David without succeeding, and earning himself many harsh criticisms
and a bad reputation (of envious) that has come down to the present day.
On the sides of the main entrance of Palazzo Vecchio we find the two
marble Termini, the male one by Vincenzo de' Rossi and the female one by
Baccio Bandinelli which take up a classical statuary genre. They depict
the spouses Philemon and Baucis, who according to legend were
transformed by Jupiter he into an oak tree and she into a lime tree, for
this reason they were examples of mutual love. Originally they supported
a chain that was placed as a barrier to the entrance.
The
Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1563-1565) and some of his
pupils, including Giambologna, is the first public fountain in Florence.
The great Neptune in white marble is not much loved by the Florentines
who call it Biancone (the famous epitome expressed by the people at the
inauguration of the statue in 1565 "Ammannato Ammannato, what beautiful
marble you have ruined!").
Finally, in a central position to the
left of Palazzo Vecchio is the grandiose equestrian statue of Cosimo I,
a bronze work by Giambologna (1594).
Other famous sculptures are
housed under the Loggia dei Lanzi (the Rape of the Sabine Women, the
group of Polissena, Nesso and the Centaur, etc.).
Piazza della Signoria, as the center of the political life of the
city, is one of the privileged urban spaces for holding parties,
ceremonies and games, both of a profane and religious nature.
For
example, for the Feast of San Giovanni, on 24 June, the patron saint of
the city, the Feast of Tributes was celebrated in the square before the
religious ceremony in the Baptistery. The peoples conquered by Florence
paraded in front of the Priors of the Arts in the Republican era, then
in front of the Grand Duke, and offered their gifts: waxes, precious
fabrics and more. Then in the evening the square became the theater of
the fires of San Giovanni, which still today represent the most
spectacular and profane aspect of the feast dedicated to the patron
saint. In the Middle Ages the whole city, and in particular the square,
was illuminated by innumerable fires; starting from the fourteenth
century, with the spread of gunpowder, the event was enriched with
colored explosions, as evidenced by a fresco by Stradano in Palazzo
Vecchio. Artists and engineers were employed in the construction of the
pyrotechnic pinwheel, among which Tribolo, a sculptor and architect
active for the Medici, stood out.
The large square was the
preferred one for carrying out the Giostra del Saracino, a game that
originated in the Middle Ages, at the time of the Crusades, and alludes
to the struggle between good and evil, between Christians and infidels.
Much appreciated between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
Giostra fell into disuse at the end of the eighteenth century.
All the most important ceremonies related to the life of the Medici
court, especially the weddings of the rulers or the celebrations in
honor of famous people, took place in Piazza della Signoria. For the
occasion, ephemeral decorations were created based on a project by the
most important Florentine artists: among the most famous those for the
visit of Leo X in 1513 and those for the wedding of Francesco I de'
Medici and Giovanna of Austria.
Finally, a particular festival is
the Fiorita, which takes place every year on May 23 to commemorate the
burning of Savonarola. After the celebration of mass in the Cappella dei
Priori in Palazzo Vecchio, the Dominican friars, the municipal
authorities and the citizens descend into the square to scatter flower
petals on the exact spot where Savonarola was hanged and burned. The
ceremony stems from the fact that the day following the stake, the place
of torture was found covered in flowers.
There are numerous anecdotes about the square, also because it has
been the center of city life for centuries.
Behind the Fountain
of Neptune, on the corner of Palazzo Vecchio, there is a plaque which
clearly recalls how the Otto di Guardia and Balia (the forerunners of
the municipal police force, active from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
century) forbade anyone to rinse clothes and make more dirt in the
fountain, under penalty of a monetary fine or, for those who cannot pay,
the dreaded torture of rope sections (the lifting of the body from a
rope tied to the hands crossed behind the back, which led to permanent
damage to the arms and shoulders).
On the other corner of Palazzo
Vecchio, towards the Uffizi, a male profile called the "Importuno" has
just been sketched out on a stone of the corner ashlar, according to
legend an impromptu work by Michelangelo Buonarroti, even painted from
the back.
On Palazzo Guidacci, on the north side, there is a
complicated nineteenth-century sundial, which indicated exact midday,
understood as the instant in which the Sun reaches its maximum height,
which in Florence occurs about ten minutes after twelve (13 if daylight
saving time is in progress).
This square has an area of approximately
7,800 m2.