This watercolour captures Palazzo Vecchio from a narrow Florentine lane, looking up at the palace's massive medieval walls and the soaring 94-metre Arnolfo Tower that dominates the skyline. The building has a fortress-like character with rough-hewn rusticated stonework, crenellated battlements, the Gothic two-light windows with trefoil arches, and the clock tower that has regulated Florentine time for seven centuries.
The tower's asymmetrical position not centered on the facade is a clue that it is an add-on. It's unusual construction, built upon the pre-existing walls of the Foraboschi family tower-house. Designed by Arnolfo di Cambio (architect of the Duomo and Santa Croce) and constructed between 1299 and 1314, the palace was originally called Palazzo della Signoria, built to house the government of the Florentine Republic.
The building was enlarged in 1342 by Walter VI of Brienne, Duke of Athens, who added the secret staircase for nightly exits and gave it the appearance of a fortress.
In the 1560s, Giorgio Vasari transformed the interior for Cosimo I de' Medici, creating the Mannerist Renaissance palace seen today. The palace served as the seat of Florentine government, then the Medici grand dukes, and from 1865 to 1871 housed the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy. Since 1872 it has been Florence's town hall, making it one of the longest continuously used government buildings in Europe.
The tower, known as Torre d'Arnolfo, contains two small cells that imprisoned Cosimo de' Medici the Elder in 1435 and Girolamo Savonarola in 1498 during his final days before execution.
Interesting facts...
The tower does not rest on its own foundations but on the pre-existing walls of the Foraboschi family tower an amazing engineering solution that allowed Arnolfo to place it asymmetrically.
The tower contains 416 steps to the top, passing through guardian passages with spectacular views over Florence and the Arno valley.
There is a hidden corridor connecting Bianca Cappello's dressing room to Francesco I's quarters was used for their scandalous love affair that became a second marriage in the 1570s. The Vasari Corridor, over a mile long, adorned with frescoes, connects Palazzo Vecchio to Pitti Palace across the Arno, providing a safe route for the Medici to flee in times of unrest.
Legends speak of entire underground cities beneath the palace, part of a maze of escape routes and hiding places. The Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) was once the largest hall in Florence, designed to hold citizen assemblies of 500 people. Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were both commissioned to paint its walls (their frescoes were never completed). The tower's clock has regulated Florentine time since the 14th century.
The building actually stands on the ancient ruins of the Roman theatre of Florentia (1st century AD), now visible along a circuit through the palace basement. So in a way this building has been extended and occupied for almost 2000 years.\
Location: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
