Palazzo Spini Feroni is located in Florence near the Santa Trinita bridge, at the beginning of via Tornabuoni, at the corner with piazza Santa Trinita.
On this site were the towers of the Spini family, demolished after
the Ghibellines took over power after 1260 and seriously damaged during
the flood of 15 December 1288.
The palace was built starting from
1289 for the very rich merchant and politician Geri Spini, on the land
and buildings owned by his family and purchased specifically by the
monks of Santa Trinita after the flood.
At the time it was the
largest private palace in Florence, the only one that could compete with
Palazzo Vecchio, which was being built in those same years. Among the
architects who could have participated in the construction there has
been talk of Arnolfo di Cambio or Lapo Tedesco, Arnolfo's father, of
whom, however, we have very little information due largely to Vasari; it
has in common with other Arnolfi works the sense of volume, which can be
admired in all its fullness and majesty both from the square and from
the bridge.
To get an idea of its original appearance, it can be
compared with the depiction Domenico Ghirlandaio made of it in the
frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel, in the opposite church of Santa
Trinita.
Since the fourteenth century, the palace was divided
into two properties, belonging to two branches of the Spini family: one
towards the Arno, inhabited by the Spini family until the nineteenth
century, and one towards the square, whose family had to cede the
property due to financial difficulties until from the mid-seventeenth
century. Today it represents the most remodeled part, especially in the
internal structure, where since the seventeenth century the staircase
was rebuilt and some rooms were embellished.
The palace was
enlarged and remodeled in the following centuries while it passed to the
Guasconi and Da Bagnano (1651). The Marquis Francesco Antonio Feroni
became the owner of the palace towards Santa Trinita in 1674. A very
recent nobleman, he had humble origins and a troubled life in Amsterdam,
where he became a wealthy banker and where he was able to welcome the
Grand Duke Cosimo III with such great magnificence that he earned the
noble title and a post as senator in Florence. In that period the palace
was redecorated with a series of stuccoes by Giovan Battista Foggini and
Lorenzo Merlini (which also included the transfer of a famous chapel
frescoed by Bernardino Poccetti, with the paintings detached in a
fortuitous manner).
The other half of the palace remained in the
Spini family until the death of Guglielmo Spini, who had an only married
daughter Del Tovaglia. Not having any children by him, he named Luca
Domenico Pitti as heir, who added the surname Spini to him as a sign of
gratitude. His son Roberto sold his half of the building to the Marquis
Feroni, thus reuniting the entire building under a single owner (1807).
In 1832 the building was sold to the Homberts, who opened a hotel
there, the Hotel de l'Europe. At that time the palace was still close to
the river, divided only by an archway. The Lungarno degli Acciaiuoli was
built in those years and required the rebuilding of the façade on the
Lungarno, where some coats of arms already on the Torrione dei
Pizzicotti were inserted. Among these coats of arms we recognize those
of the Spini, of the city of Florence, of Carlo di Valois and of the
Caetani, in honor of Pope Boniface VIII, ally and distant relative of
Geri Spini.
The Municipality bought it by reunifying the two
original parts internally in 1846 and later used it as headquarters
during the years of Florence as Capital (1865-1871) when Palazzo Vecchio
was "required" by the Italian Government to accommodate its
headquarters. For a certain period, the second seat of the Gabinetto
Vieusseux (after Palazzo Buondelmonti), a library and a cultural center
was also housed there. The renovations in neo-medieval style date back
to these years. The Municipality was based there until 1881, after which
it was put up for sale and purchased by the Cassa di Risparmio di
Firenze. In 1938 the building was purchased by Salvatore Ferragamo, as
the parent company and main boutique for his activity as a footwear and
leather goods designer that made him famous throughout the world. The
Salvatore Ferragamo Museum has been open there since 1995.
Today Palazzo Spini Feroni remains one of the best examples of
medieval residential architecture in Florence, even if its archaic
appearance is partly the result of the restorations of 1874, when the
Baroque window was eliminated. Unlike Renaissance palaces, today it
retains the solid appearance of a defensive fort, typical of when large
families had to protect themselves above all from their fellow citizens.
The cladding with exposed stone and the crowning of Guelph merlons in
fact denote the shape of a fortress, which once guarded the Santa
Trinita bridge. On the ground floor there is still a loggia (where the
windows are set today), the scores of which were regularized in the 19th
century, and a stone base that runs around the building and acts as a
bench: the so-called street bench was one of the first in Florence and
in addition to the practical function it gave the building a base that
resembled a classic crepidoma. This bench, eliminated in the 19th
century, was restored only in the following century.
Externally
it presents the masonry in pietraforte not covered by plaster and
interspersed with arched windows (the result of the nineteenth-century
restoration) aligned along string course frames, for the considerable
height of three floors plus the terminal gallery, resting on corbels
supported by inverted pyramids. The large windows were among the first
to be made in this way in Florence, so different from medieval
loopholes, and probably other buildings such as Palazzo Davanzati or
Palazzo Castellani were inspired by them. The windows of the mezzanine,
under the doors, were closed during the 19th century restorations.
On the side along the Arno once there was a tower and the "Arco dei
Pizzicotti", which had defensive purposes for the bridge and which were
demolished in 1824 to widen the Arno (designed by Luigi Cambray-Digny
implemented by Giuseppe Cacialli and Gaetano Baccani).
In the
entrance hall, where the shops on the street once existed, there is the
high relief by Giuseppe Piamontini from 1705, which represents The
Giants electrocuted by Jupiter.
Inside there is still a private
chapel with frescoes by Bernardino Poccetti from 1609-1612 representing
Paradise with a choir of angel musicians in the vault and the Adoration
of the Shepherds on the altar. The frescoes had been created for another
room which served as a chapel; in the eighteenth-century renovations
commissioned by the Da Bagnanos, the sacellum disappeared and, in order
not to destroy the paintings, they were detached and transferred to the
new chapel. The architect responsible for such a risky removal (at the
time the detachment techniques had not yet been learned), Lorenzo
Merlini, framed the relocated frescoes with stucco and gilding.
The rest of the noble rooms are mostly decorated with 17th-18th century
frescoes by Ranieri del Pace.