Palazzo Vecchio

The Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence are indissolubly connected with the history of the city. The piazza has always been a public gathering point and the most important civic square in Florence.

The square is breath-taking and it has always been the focus of civic activity. It is dominated by Palazzo della Signoria (also called Palazzo Vecchio), a medieval crenellated building and former seat of the Signoria (the city’s ruling body). Highlights include famous statues like a copy of Michelangelo’s David (the original is in the Galleria dell’Accademia), the equestrian bronze of Cosimo I by Giambologna or Ammannati’s Neptune fountain. In the adjacent Loggia (built in the 1300s to shelter important personalities during ceremonies and celebrations) stand other great sculptures like the marvellous Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini and Giambologna’s spiralling Rape of the Sabine Women.

With its distinctive tower (the city’s second highest building), the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence is a local landmark. It houses the famous Quartieri Monumentali, once the main apartments of the dukes. The Salone dei Cinquecento is the Grand Hall were the members of the Great Council met in pre-Medici days. It is outlined by beautiful statues like the less known Genius of Victory by Michelangelo and by huge paintings of Florence at war by court painter, architect and art historian Giorgio Vasari and his collaborators. The coffered ceiling depicts the epic of the House of Medici.

Off the Salone is the mysterious Studiolo, the secret office where Grand Duke Francesco I hid away to practise alchemy. Upstairs from the Grand Hall are the so called “Quartieri”, the apartments of the dukes before they moved to the Pitti Palace in the second half of the 1500s. After this relocation, people started to call the former seat of the Medici the Palazzo Vecchio (Italian for “Old Palace”).

Beyond the Quartieri are other beautiful halls like the Sala dell’Udienza or the Sala dei Gigli both decorated with some sublime frescoes rich in political significance. The Map Room is also very interesting thanks to its many old maps and the gigantic 16th century globe by astronomer and cosmographer Ignazio Danti.