YOUR FLORENCE EXPERIENCE

FINE ARTS AND
CULTURE ACADEMY

The Russian Orthodox Curch in Florence

A short walk from piazza della Libertà, on a street named after the first Medici Pope, Leone X (famous for having excommunicated Martin Luther in 1521), stands a beautiful and unexpected architectural gem. We're talking about the Russian Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ and Saint Nicholas, know to...

The facade of santa maria del Fiore in Florence: a 6 century long enterprise

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore has become one of the most famous churches in the world, especially thanks to the amazing dome of which Filippo Brunelleschi endowed it with. Not everyone knows, however, that the symbolic building of Florence has a very troubled history, which lasted almost 600...

Out of town: the Castle of Sammezzano

A 30 minutes drive from Florence, there is a truly spectacular place, that looks like it came out of a fairy tale: the Sammezzano Castle. Sammezzano Castle is the most important example of Orientalist architecture in Italy and is located in the municipality of Reggello in the province of Florence....

The Palace of Bianca Cappello: a love story and a series of misterious deaths

In via Maggio at n. 26, there is a very particular building, recognizable by its beautiful facade entirely decorated with grotesques. First documented architectural work of Bernardo Buontalenti, the palace was commissioned by Francesco I de’ Medici and built, between 1570 and 1574, upon an old fifteenth-century building. Francesco I,...

Ancient Florence: Badia Fiorentina

With Brunelleschi’s Dome, Giotto's bell tower and the tower of Palazzo Vecchio to reign supreme in the Florentine skyline, the beautiful bell tower of the Badia Fiorentina often goes unnoticed, although clearly visible next to the tower of the Bargello museum. It indicates the position of one of the oldest...

Medici Chapels: The New Sacristy

The Medici Chapels of Florence are one of the most famous and fascinating complexes in the city. Built by Michelangelo and Buontalenti between the 16th and 17th centuries, the chapels are the mausoleum of the Medici family and include the Chapel of the Princes and the New Sacristy (so called...

Medici Chapels: the Chapel of the Princes

The Medici Chapels complex is part of the Basilica of San Lorenzo and includes the New Sacristy designed by Michelangelo in 1519, and the grandiose Chapel of the Princes built in the seventeenth century. Hard to decide which space is the most beautiful, the first emblem of formal purity, the...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - Villa Bayon on the San Gaggio hill

Along the old provincial road to Siena, at the top of the San Gaggio hill, there is a beautiful residential area, a network of narrow streets that lead to villas in the countryside. All very elegant but one is different from the others: Villa Bayon. Commissioned in 1963 by the...

The gardens of Florence - Villa Favard in Rovezzano

Eastern suburbs of Florence, in Rovezzano, a public park with a large villa in the center, Villa Favard (not to be confused with the homonymous villa in via Curtatone, home of the Polimoda Fashion School).   The history of this place begins at the end of 1200, in a Florence...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The district of Sorgane

For those interested in architecture, Sorgane is a district of Florence definitely worth visiting. In 1957 it was decided to build here a satellite city of public housing, a very ambitious project. Initially designed for 12,000 inhabitants, the project is entrusted to a group of young architects coordinated by Giovanni...

Vasari's Loggia del Pesce: a troubled history

The fish market was once located in today's Lungarno degli Archibugieri, then Piazza del Pesce, right next to Ponte Vecchio. In 1565, on the occasion of the marriage between the son of Grand Duke Cosimo I, Francesco, and the Archduchess of Austria Giovanna of Austria, the famous Vasari Corridor was...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - Leonardo Savioli's modern tower house in via Piagentina 29

Leonardo Savioli (1917 - 1982) was one of the most important Florentine architects. Great illustrator, abstract expressionist and informal painter, professor at the University of Florence. He had graduated with Giovanni Michelucci and had participated in the planning of the Urban Development Plan of Florence in the years after the...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The Opera di Firenze and the Maggio Musicale

The New Opera Theater has replaced the old Municipal Theater, the work of the engineer Telemaco Bonaiuti, which dated back to 1862. The old building was no longer considered to be up with the times, especially from a technical and safety point of view and was no longer able to...

The Baptistry of San Giovanni in Florence

On June 24, Florence celebrates its patron saint, San Giovanni, but this has not always been the case. Back in the day, when the religion was still pagan, the city was devoted to the god Mars. Many believe that the current Baptistery of San Giovanni was built from the ruins...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The Golden Ratio in art and at Palazzo Rucellai

This time the title "Beyond the Renaissance" should be interpreted as "Renaissance beyond itself", that is, at the top of its idea of ​​the world and of the rediscovery of classical culture. The facade of Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti and completed in 1465, is celebrated as one...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Manifattura Tabacchi of Florence and Women's emancipation

The Manifattura Tabacchi: a district of 16 buildings on an area of ​​100,000 square meters, next to the Cascine Park. Pure modernist rationalist architecture, designed by architects Giovanni Bartoli and Pier Luigi Nervi in ​​1933, completed in 1940. According to modernist architectural canons, the structure had to be functional to...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The new Palace of Justice, the construction

Leonardo Ricci died in 1994, construction began in 2000 and the work was inaugurated in 2012.It is the second largest Palace of Justice in Italy, after the one in Turin, covers 3 hectares of land and has a useful area of ​​126,000 square meters. The measurements are: 230 m by...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The new Palace of Justice, the project

In 1988 Leonardo Ricci presented the preliminary project alone, but many ideas, elaborated with Michelucci and contained in the beautiful sketches preserved in the Michelucci Foundation in Fiesole, are maintained:- The circular square in front of the entrance, also equipped with a "reflecting pool", a large body of water to...

Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The New Palace of Justice, when the story began

The New Palace of Justice is the most demanding, spectacular and interesting work of recent decades. And of course it was a source of endless controversy, like everything in Florence.The need to bring together the judicial functions dates back to 1867, at the time of Florence Capital (1865 - 1870)....

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - La Fontana delle Boccacce

Le Cascine Park, the largest in Florence, was built in 1563 as a hunting reserve and agricultural farm of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de 'Medici. The name Le Cascine derives from the ancient Tuscan word "cascio", from cacio, meaning cheese. The cascio was the place where cows were milked and cheeses were processed. “Cascino” was...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Nuovo Archivio di Stato, an endless controversy

The Florentines are famous for being polemical and disagree on everything, since the time of Guelphs and Ghibellines. This side of the citizen character has historically been very negative because many initiatives end up in nothing due to discussions and disputes and, if they are successful, they still leave a...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence -San Giorgio dello Spirito Santo alla Costa

The restoration of the Church of San Giorgio dello Spirito Santo alla Costa  - once again the seat of a neighborhood parish -  financed by the Gianmaria Buccellati Foundation under the direction of the Superintendence of Fine Arts of Florence, has been completed.We are in Costa San Giorgio, one of...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Central Market of San Lorenzo

The San Lorenzo Market or Central Market is famous all over the world and frequented by anyone who visits Florence. Outside there are stalls for souvenirs, clothing, items made with leather and fabrics, inside groceries on the ground floor, restaurants and gastronomies on the first floor.The building is also a...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Art Nouveau Greenhouse by Giacomo Roster

The Orticoltura Garden was established for botanical scientific experiments in 1859 by the Georgofili Academy, an association founded in 1753, in the Enlightenment climate, for the study of agricultural techniques. Vineyards, fruit trees, vegetables and eccentric and rare ornamental plants were planted in the area. In 1876 the whole park...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - Il Villino Uzielli, Art Nouveau and Neoclassic

Not only Renaissance, other times, other architectures --- The VILLINO UZIELLI.  The original construction was built in 1870 on commission of Guido Uzielli, a wealthy banker. The building was part of the urban structure of the area according to Giuseppe Poggi's plan of 1865 Firenze Capitale, when the residences of...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Pagliazza Tower, the oldest building in the city

This tower has the honor of being the oldest building in Florence, miraculously remaining in its original appearance. Built in the 6th century AD, almost surely by the Byzantines during the war with the Goths (535 - 553), it was part of the second smaller city walls, after the Roman...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - The Lorena triumphal Arch, a monument to the losers

Florence too has a triumphal arch like Paris, even if few people notice it, as it is isolated in a sea of traffic, in Piazza della Libertà. Any time of the day, gas and noise prevent passers-by from stopping for more than a few seconds, just long enough to wait...

Florentine Gothic masterpieces: Giotto's Bell tower

We very often talk about Brunelleschi's spectacular Dome - an unrivaled architectural enterprise- the largest masonry dome ever built to date. Sometimes, however, we forget the other architectural masterpiece that sits right next to it: Giotto's Bell Tower!   It was July 18, 1334 when Giotto began to lay the...

Beyond Renaissance in Florence - Il Villino Broggi - Caraceni, an Art Nouveau masterpiece

Built in 1911 by the architect Giovanni Michelazzi (1879 - 1920), it is considered one of the most significant Italian Art Nouveau buildings, certainly the most interesting in Florence. Michelazzi was a very refined architect, even if unfortunately he designed very few works, committing suicide in 1920 at the age...

Florence Fortezza da Basso

The Fortezza da Basso, or fortress of San Giovanni Battista, today the main Florentine exhibition venue, has a long history, which began after the experience of the siege of 1529. At the time, Duke Alessandro de’ Medici commissioned to the artists and architects Pier Francesco da Viterbo and Antonio da...

The Tower of Palazzo Vecchio

Palazzo Vecchio, with its high tower is one of the symbols of Florence, and the tower, which stands 95 meters high above the roofs of the city, is what marks the location of the ancient Palazzo della Signoria even from afar. The tower of Arnolfo was built at the beginning...

The great Synagogue of Florence

The skyline of Florence is very a distinctive one, easily recognized by anybody in the world. The huge Brunelleschi’s Dome stands out among the terracotta red roofs, along with by Giotto’s bell tower, the tower of Palazzo Vecchio and on the Arno river, Ponte Vecchio’s famous silhouette. From the panoramic...

The towers of Florence

With the arrival of summer it will be possible to access the Torre di San Niccolò, Torre della Zecca and Porta Romana, usually closed to the public, and now opening their doors to visitors on selected days. The Torre di San Niccolò already reopened, as usual, on the occasion of...

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