Carol and Roger don’t get into Firenze as often as they would like (it’s five hours each way by bus and train), so when we do get to go, we try to make the most of it.
Our goal this trip was the Palazzo Medici.
The palace was the inspiration of Cosimo di Medici (pictured right), who grew a moderately successful banking family into the most powerful clan in Firenze. In the early 1440’s, he asked two archetects to come up with designs for the palazzo: Filippo Brunelleschi (who designed the dome of the Florence cathedral) and Brunelleschi’s oft-collaborator Michelozzo di Bartolomeo.
Cosimo decided Brunelleschi’s design would violate Firenze’s sumptuary law (against conspicuous displays of wealth), so he chose Michelozzo’s plan.
Brunelleschi got so angry with the decision, he never spoke to his friend Michelozzo again.
Somehow, this design was within the bounds (though barely) of the sumptuary law.
The original statue in the middle of the cortile was Donatello’s David (see previous post).
With this commission, Michelozzo became the Medici family architect. He worked on this building (and others) for the next 40 years.
This building is considered the prototype renaissance palace…and contains several architectural innovations: principally the use of slightly smaller sized stones on the exterior of each floor of the palazzo.
The most famous room in the palazzo is called the Magi Chapel…because the fresco on the main wall portrays the three magi on their way to visit baby Jesus.
As with much Renaissance art, the painting portrays more than it seems. The faces of the three magi are portraits of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Byzantine Emperor, and Cosimo di Medici. (Placing yourself in pretty exclusive company,eh?)
Two of the faces in the crowd are Cosimo’s grandsons: Guiliano and Lorenzo di Medici.
And the artist, Benozzo Gozzoli, even managed to sneak his self-portrait into the scene.
The rest of the palazzo was also covered with art. After five centuries and several remodels, many of the original frescoes were gone. But detailed plans for the palazzo still exist, and in many places you can still get a pretty good idea of what the walls originally looked like.
Cosimo di Medici believed in the greatness of classical antiquity and how that art, poetry, and philosophy could be applied to improve 15th century life.
He collected antiquities from ancient Rome, like this 1st century (CE) bust of Caracalla.
In 1492, the fundamentalist priest Giolamo Savonarola overthrew Medici rule in Firenze and set up Europe’s first civil theocracy. In 1494, he had the entire Medici family exiled from the city. (A few years after that, the people of Firenze, disgusted with Savonarola’s fundamentalism, hung the priest, burned his corpse, and re-established a republic).
With the Medici family in exile, the city government expropriated the palazzo for public use. A few months later, September 1494…when the French King Charles VIII invaded Italy…he stayed in this bed chamber…which remains decorated as it was for his visit.
Even today, when the President of Italy visits Firenze, this room is reserved for his stay.
In 1512, the Medici family returned to Firenze from exile and again took up residence in their palazzo. A few years later this man, Cosimo I di Medici, was born in the palazzo. In 1569 this Cosimo became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany.
A grand duke needed something more palatial than the Palazzo Medici. Cosimo I wanted something that matched his ambitions, and he moved family headquarters to the even-grander Palazzo Pitti across the River Arno.
The Palazzo Medici stayed in the family, however, for almost another 100 years
As the Renaissance era evolved into the Baroque, the renovations became ever-more ornate, culminating in this great hall. Just imagine standing in this room, looking at the ceiling, the mirrored walls, and the gold leaf on plaster! There’s no way to put it into words!
As if the interior of the palazzo weren’t enough, just outside the cortile lies the private garden. The Medici’s were the first Florentine family to import orange and lemon trees for their garden. The trees were kept in pots, so they could be moved inside during cold winter weather.
Even today, Tuscans keep their citrus trees in pots…so they too can move them into shelter when the weather gets cold.
All good things must come to an end.
In 1659, Grand Duke Ferdinand II sold this remarkable palace to Gabriello Riccardi. The Riccardi family did extensive renovations over the centuries to “update” it to then-current, “modern” standards.
Only in the past few decades has the foundation that now owns the palazzo been able to begin restorations to it’s original grandeur.
Which brings us to the oldest building in Firenze…..
The round tower in this picture, less than half a kilometer away from the Palazzo Medici/Riccardi, is known as the Torre Pagliazza.
It first appears in the written records of Firenze in the year 1141. Even then, it was not a new building. Best estimates are the tower was built some time in the Sixth Century as part of the city’s defenses against the invading Goths.
By the year 1268 the tower served as the women’s prison… which is where it gets its name. “Pagliazza” is the Italian word for straw. Unlike in the men’s prison, where prisoners had to sleep on the bare stone floor, inmates in the women’s prison got to sleep on straw palettes.
If this were all there were to the story, the tower’s record as the oldest building in Firenze would be intact.
But the story goes back even farther.
In 1983, as the city was doing yet another round of renovations to the Torre Pagliazza, construction workers discovered these shards of pottery…that date back to the first century CE.
Renovations stopped, so archeologists could excavate the site. At a level even lower below ground, they discovered this…
…a Roman bath. One pool for hot soaking and another for cool.
Today, the renovations are long completed, and the Torre Pagliazza is part of a four star hotel, the Hotel Brunelleschi, where rooms go for 700€ a night. (Probably a bit different level of luxury than the inmates of the women’s prison experienced in the 13th century).
If you want to see the Roman baths, just ask the doorman to take you down to the museum in the basement. You don’t even have to be a paying guest.