Piazza della Signoria Florence
This square in the centre of Florence called, Piazza della Signoria, has served as the cities' political hub since the Middle Ages. Its defining moment came in 1268, when the Guelph party defeated the ruling Ghibellines and razed many of their rival's houses in the old city centre. The building called Palazzo della Signoria, later known as the Palazzo Vecchio, was built in their wake, and the city had its new seat of civic government. It is said that the squares architect, Arnolfo di Cambio, was instructed not to use a single square inch of the Ghibelline land for the new construction. A legend that goes some way to explaining both Arnolfo's unorthodox off-centre design and the Piazza's unusual L shape. You would not tbe to far from truth if you were to describe this fabulous square as an outdoor scupture gallery.
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Today the square is a popular meeting place for both Florentines and tourists alike. As well as the Palazzo Vecchio, it is adjoined by the Uffizi Gallery; the 19th-century Renaissance Palace of the Assicurazioni Generali; and the Uguccioni Palace, whose facade is believed to be the work of Raphael. The Loggia dei Lanzi (1376-82), situated on the south side, is one of the square's oldest and most attractive embellishments. It is home to a parade of statues, including a copy of Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women (original now held in the Galleria dell'Accademia) and the less-celebrated Hercules and the Centaur Nessus, by the same artist. |
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Pride of place, however, goes to Benvenuto Cellini's famous bronze sculpture of Perseus, who stands triumphant, holding aloft the severed head of Medusa. Its richly carved marble pedestal displaying four graceful statuettes of Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva and Danae, is also worth close inspection. |
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The piazza itself boasts an even more impressive statuary, with copies of Donatello's Judith and the Holofernes and, most famously of all, Michelangelo's David, lining up alongside others in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The original David was placed here in 1504 and notoriously suffered a dismembered arm in a riot before it was finally relocated to the Galleria dell'Accademia for safekeeping from the elements in 1873. The one that stands here now was made from a cast and thus is a perfect copy.
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Other well-known (yet not quite so well-received) monuments include Hercules and Cacus (1533), by Bandinelli; and Bartolomeo Ammannati's Fountain of Neptune (1575), which has earned the somewhat unflattering nickname Il Biancone, "Big White One". A plaque set in the ground in front of the fountain marks the spot where, in 1497, the fanatical monk Girolamo Savonarola held the Bonfire of the Vanities. Here he and his followers burned paintings, mirrors, clothing, cosmetics, and any other objects seen to represent a perceived decadence in Renaissance society. Images of pagan gods were also destroyed, most notably those created by Sandro Botticelli, an adherent of Savonarola, who threw the works on the fire himself.
Just one year later, public opinion had turned, as it has a way of doing and Savonarola was promptly hanged. Ironically, he was burned as a heretic on the same spot on the Piazza. Another plaque, this one on the walls of the Uffizi, commemorates the exile of Dante, a then supporter of the fractional White Guelphs, who was cast out of the city by the ruling Black Guelphs at the turn of the 14th century.