The name "Blooming" Florence was given by Roman veterans, back in 59 BC. NS. who founded a settlement on the banks of the Arno River. Then the city became the seat of the bishop, achieved independence and was reborn for a new life, becoming a commune. From the X century. Florence flourished and minted its own coin, which in the Middle Ages was a sign of economic independence. Florence gave the world glorious sons who glorified their homeland for many centuries and entire eras. The names of Giovanni Boccaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante and Galileo are forever inscribed in the history of the city and the whole world. Still not decided what to see in Florence? The administrative capital of the Tuscany region does not require a special program. Every cathedral, palazzo or museum in Florence is full of charm and priceless.
Santa Maria del Fiore
The Cathedral of Saint Mary in Flowers is an outstanding example of early Renaissance Florentine architecture, called the Quattrocento and dating back to the 15th century. The temple strikes with a combination of grace and monumentality and is a kind of symbol of the transition from the architectural traditions of medieval architecture to the Renaissance:
- The main architectural dominant of Florence is the dome of the Duomo. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the great master of the Renaissance. The diameter of the hemisphere is 42 m, and the height of the dome from the inside is 90 m.
- The length and width of the cathedral are 153 and 90 meters, respectively. At the same time, the entire population of Florence at the time of construction could fit in the temple - 30 thousand people.
- The total height of the structure reaches 114 m.
Santa Maria del Fiore was supposed to surpass the Duomo of Pisa and Siena and its creators managed to carry out their plans.
Campanile Giotto
The brightest example of Florentine Gothic, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is called the most important work of the Italian trecento. A combination of sophistication and monumentality, trepidation and severity, the campanile bears the name of the author of her project, Giotto, who managed to finish only the first tier.
Arnolfo di Cambio laid the foundation stone for the bell tower in 1298. Under his leadership, construction began two years earlier. With the death of the author of the Duomo project, the construction was frozen for almost 30 years, until Giotto picked up the baton.
The tower was erected in the same polychrome style as the cathedral, and the whole ensemble seems to be painted. In the middle of the XIV century. the tower was faced with three types of marble slabs - white Carrara, red Siena and green from the Prato quarries.
Upstairs there is an observation deck from where you can look at Florence and its surrounding landscapes.
Ponte Vecchio bridge
At the narrowest point of the Arno River, which flows through Florence, a bridge was built in 1345, which today has become one of the symbols of the city. All tourists come to look at the goods displayed in jewelry stores on Ponte Vecchio. The truth is, alas, few can afford to buy something: the prices for jewelry in Florence bite a lot.
Initially, the shops on Ponte Vecchio belonged to butchers, but the nobility resented the unpleasant smells in the city center, and the cutters and meat vendors moved to the outskirts. From Ponte Vecchio came the concept of "bankruptcy", when the counter ("banko") to the indebted merchant was broken by the guards ("rotto").
The bridge appeared on the site of the old one, which had existed since 996. The Kassiev road passed along it. The modern ferry has an arched structure, and above the buildings on the bridge is the Vasari corridor, along which the Grand Duke Cosimo Medici could pass unnoticed from the Palazzo Vecchio to the residence in the Pitti Palace.
Palazzo Vecchio
In this palace of Florence, the construction of which was carried out at the beginning of the 14th century, the city administration still sits today. Palazzo Vecchio was conceived as a government building, but more than once served as a place of execution for those who tried to overthrow the Medici rule.
Outwardly, the palace seems to have been hewn out of a single piece of rock. The rectangular façade is divided into three levels by thin cornices, the battlements in the gallery are repeated on the belfry and the Arnolfo tower, whose height is 94 m. The clock appeared on it in 1667 and was created by a master from Bavaria. The mechanism does not fail today, and you can find out the exact time in Florence by looking at the Arnolfo Tower on the Palazzo Vecchio.
In the palace, the Hall of Five Hundreds with frescoes by Giorgio Vasari, sculptures by Michelangelo, "Boy with a Fish" by Andrea Verrocchio, tapestries of the 16th century are worthy of special attention. in the Hall of Jupiter, frescoes by Agnolo Bronzino in 1564 in the Green Hall, "Madonna and Child" by Botticelli and hundreds of other priceless works of art.
Signoria Square
Life in front of the Palazzo Vecchio was always in full swing, and the square, where the facade of the palace faces, has long been the center of the political life of the Florentine Republic. Piazza della Signoria was formed in 1260, when 36 towers of the Uberti family were demolished on this site. On the vacated space, the government was based, which sat in the Palazzo Vecchio, public executions of rioters and other events traditional for the Middle Ages took place.
Today in the square you will find several sculptures known to any art lover: copies of Michelangelo's David, Donatello's Judith with the Head of Holofernes and Bandinelli's Hercules defeating Cacus. Also noteworthy is the Fountain of Neptune, created in 1570 by Ammanati in honor of the marriage of Duke Francesco Medici.
Palazzo Pitti
The Florentine banker Luca Pitti began building the grand palazzo in 1458, but died before he could finish it. The heirs sold the palace to his wife Cosimo Medici, and the new owners significantly increased the area of the palazzo, building a solid extension. A separate corridor led from here to Palazzo Vecchio, later named after the architect Vasari. The lands around the Medici palace were also bought, and the court gardener took up the decoration of the gardens, now known as Boboli. The palazzo was the residence of Madici, then passed into the possession of the Austrian house of Lorraine, later used by Napoleon and representatives of the Savoy dynasty.
The interiors of the Pitti Palace are decorated with stucco moldings of gold and white colors, priceless tapestries, wallpaper made of natural silk threads and medieval frescoes. The palazzo houses:
- Palatine Gallery with 11 paintings by Raphael, many works by Rubens, Caravaggio and Tintoretto and frescoes by Pietro da Cortona.
- Gallery of modern art with canvases by Italian painters of the 19th century.
- The Silver Museum with a collection of vases by Lorenzo the Magnificent, featuring works of gold, silver, ivory and precious stones.
Tourists have access to about 140 rooms of the palace, the interiors of which were furnished in the 17th-18th centuries.
Basilica of Santa Croce
The world's largest Franciscan church, Santa Croce was founded by Francis of Aziz himself in the first third of the 13th century. In 1294, on the site of the old building, the foundations of a new church were laid, the construction of which was financed by the richest Florentine families.
On the plan, the basilica has the shape of a T-shaped cross, which is adjoined by several outbuildings. Supervised the construction of Arnolfo di Cambio. Subsequently, the temple underwent alterations, as a result of which the most ancient parts of it were lost, along with the frescoes of Orcanyi. And yet the Church of Santa Croce remains one of the most interesting sights of Florence.
During the tour, you can look at the wall paintings from the 14th century. Gaddi, stained glass windows by Jacopo del Casantino in the Bardi chapel, frescoes by Domenico Veneziano dating from the 15th century, polyptych "The Coronation of Mary" by Giotto, Michelangelo's tomb by Vasari.
Nicolo Machiavelli, Gioachino Rossini, Enrico Fermi and about 300 other famous Florentines also rest in the temple.
Orsanmichele
Built in the first half of the XIV century. the Orsanmichele palace served both as a temple and a city granary. A century earlier, a city market was located on this site, where grain was traded. In 1367, external arcades with luxuriously decorated windows were added to the open loggia with pilasters, which was used as a trade pavilion. In memory of the temple, which stood on this place earlier, the images of the Mother of God and St. Michael were installed. Soon the trade was moved to another place, the lower floor of Orsanmichele began to serve exclusively for religious purposes, but on the upper floors, transactions between grain traders were still concluded.
In the XIV century. Orsanmichele became a center for artisans. Guild guilds generously donated funds, and the church acquired sculptures of the patron saints of artisans, the authors of which were Donatello, Lorenzo Hiberoi and Andrea del Verrocchio - the most famous masters of that era. The sculptures of Thomas the Unbeliever by Verrocchio and Saint Mark, who were sculpted by Donatello, invariably attract tourists.
Santa Maria Novella
The first Florentine basilica, Santa Maria Novella, was built between the 14th and 15th centuries. Today it is the main Dominican temple in the city. A masterpiece of the Gothic and early Renaissance, the church is famous for the magnificent portal by Alberti and the admirable collection of art from the 14th-16th centuries.
On the vaults of the Gondi Chapel you will find a collection of frescoes by Greek painters of the 14th century, and on the altar wall there is also Brunelleschi's Crucifixion. In the Chapel Maggiore it is impossible to pass by the altar with the bronze crucifixion of Giambologna, and in the main nave - past the sculpture "Madonna of the Rosary" by Vasari.
Galileo Museum
In an old mansion of the XI century. a museum dedicated to the history of science was opened. It bears the name of Galileo, and its exhibits prove the connection between the Medici family and the Lorraine dynasty with the development of science in the Middle Ages.
The first floor displays exhibits dating from the 15th-18th centuries. Among the rarities are artifacts that belonged to Galileo Galilei: telescopes for observing the starry sky, a collection of globes, including celestial ones, thermometers and a giant armillary sphere for determining the coordinates of celestial objects.
The second floor houses the collection of the Dukes of Lorraine, collected in the 18th-19th centuries. After reviewing the exposition, we can conclude that Tuscany has made a huge contribution to the development of chemistry, electromagnetism, electricity, medical sciences and physics of body motion.
