Tag: square in Florence

Piazza della Repubblica is one of the main squares in Florence, located in the historic center of the city, within the UNESCO-listed area. The rectangular square measures about 75 meters by 100 meters, covers roughly 7,500 square meters, and stands around 250 meters from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The square is one of the clearest examples of how Florence changed between ancient times, the Middle Ages, and the late 19th century. Its modern appearance belongs mainly to the Risanamento, the large urban redevelopment that transformed the old central market area after Florence became capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Today, Piazza della Repubblica is a pedestrian and commercial space, bordered by historic cafés, hotels, shops, porticoes, and 19th-century buildings. It is crossed by central streets such as Via Roma, Via degli Speziali, Via degli Strozzi, Via dei Brunelleschi, Via Pellicceria, and Calimala.   Short History of Piazza della Repubblica The Roman Forum of Florentia Piazza della Repubblica has been connected with the center of Florence since Roman times. In ancient Florentia, this area corresponded to the Roman forum, the main public space where the city’s most important civic, commercial, and religious functions were concentrated. The Roman layout Read more [...]

Buy tickets & tours:GetYourGuide Piazza Santa Croce is a beautiful square in Florence, located in the eastern part of the historical center of the city.   SHORT HISTORY On this area, in ancient times, there was an island formed by two arms of the Arno River. The Franciscans, who arrived in Florence around 1226, chose this isolated area for their settlement. Similarly to Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where the Dominicans settled, Piazza Santa Croce was born about a century later, to accommodate the crowds of faithful arriving on pilgrimage to the Basilica of Santa Croce. During the Renaissance, the rectangular shape of the square made it the ideal place for knightly jousting, games and popular competitions, such as Calcio Storico Fiorentino. In Piazza Santa Croce, took place the famous game of February 17, 1530, during the siege of the city. Around that time, the square was bordered by wooden barriers that permanently delimited the area destined for games. At the end of the 18th century, under the rule of Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the wooden barriers were replaced by stone pillars that can still be seen today.   ARCHITECTURE The most important building in Piazza Santa Croce is, Read more [...]

Buy tickets & tours:GetYourGuide Piazza Santa Maria Novella is a beautiful square in Florence, located in the western part of the historical center of the city.   SHORT HISTORY The square was built starting with 1287 on the initiative of the Municipality of Florence, and completed around 1325. Later, the square became, thanks to its size, the setting for competitions such as Palio dei Cocchi (a race with carriages), established by Cosimo I in 1563. The two marble obelisks, works of Bartolomeo Ammannati, were erected around the same time. Closed to traffic in the late 1980s, the square was recently restylized, and a new pavement was added.   ARCHITECTURE The facade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella dominates the square. Completed in Renaissance style by Leon Battista Alberti in 1470, at the behest of the wealthy merchant Giovanni Rucellai, the beautiful facade of the church can be admired from any point in the square. On the southern side of Piazza Santa Maria Novella, there is the loggia of the Hospital of Saint Paul (Ospedale di San Paolo), founded in the 13th century and enlarged in the 15th century, with the addition of a portico. Today, the building houses Museo Read more [...]

Piazza della Signoria is the main square of Florence, located in the historical center of the city, about 400 meters away from the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.   SHORT HISTORY It appears that the area of the square was populated since the Neolithic, and it constituted an important fulcrum of the city of Florentia during the Roman times. In the 4th century, a large Christian basilica was built here, which remained in use until the 7th century. In the 8th century, the basilica was replaced with a church dedicated to Santa Cecilia. The square began to take its present shape around the year 1268, when the houses of the Ghibellines that resided in the area were demolished by the Guelphs who won the Battle of Benevento. Only in 1385, the square was paved for the first time. During the same 14th century, Palazzo Vecchio and Loggia della Signoria were built, and the square became the center of the political life of the city. The interventions in the following centuries mainly concerned the sculptural decoration of the square, and culminated during the Grand Ducal period with the transformation of Loggia della Signoria into an open-air museum. The construction of Read more [...]