The Palazzo Vecchio is the medieval civic palace of Florence, the seat of government since 1299, still housing the offices of the Mayor of Florence today. It dominates Piazza della Signoria with a 94-metre tower and the confidence of a building that was designed to announce power to anyone who entered the city from any direction. Inside, it contains one of the most extraordinary concentrations of Mannerist decoration in Italy: the Salone dei Cinquecento (the largest room in the palace, covered with frescoes by Vasari and containing Michelangelo's Victory), the Studiolo of Francesco I de' Medici (the most extraordinary small room in Florence, a private study panelled with 34 paintings by Bronzino, Allori, and Vasari), the apartments of Eleonora of Toledo, and a network of secret passages used by the Medici to move through the palace unseen. The Palazzo Vecchio receives more visitors than any municipal building in Italy, and is consistently underestimated by those visitors who spend all their time in the Uffizi across the piazza.
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The Salone dei Cinquecento
The Salone dei Cinquecento was created in 1495 for the meetings of the Consiglio dei Cinquecento (Council of Five Hundred), the governing assembly of the Florentine Republic. Its current decoration, the vast frescoes by Giorgio Vasari covering all four walls and the coffered ceiling, was commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1555 to celebrate Medici military victories over Siena and Pisa. The ceiling frescoes (39 panels, 68 × 18 metres total) are the most ambitious painted ceiling program in Florence after the Sistine Chapel. One wall conceals what may be Leonardo da Vinci's Battle of Anghiari, a lost fresco, documented in Leonardo's notebooks, that Vasari was instructed to preserve rather than destroy when he applied his own fresco over it. Infrared and neutron investigations have found evidence of Leonardo's work behind the Vasari surface. Whether it survives and whether it can ever be safely revealed remains one of the great debates in Italian art history. Michelangelo's Victory (1532-34, originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, now in the Salone) is the room's sculptural centerpiece.
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The Studiolo of Francesco I
The Studiolo (1570-75) is a windowless room entirely covered with 34 paintings by the major Florentine Mannerist painters, arranged on two levels behind panels that opened as cabinets for Francesco I de' Medici's private collection of natural curiosities and alchemical instruments. The program, designed by Vasari and the humanist Vincenzo Borghini, organizes the paintings according to the four elements (earth, water, fire, air) and the four temperaments, an elaborate iconographic scheme that Francesco never explained publicly. The room is approximately 9 × 3 metres. It is one of the most intellectually dense small spaces in Italy. 34 paintings of very high quality covering every surface of a room designed for one person's private use. It can't be understood in a single visit but rewards multiple viewings.
Questions About Palazzo Vecchio Florence
How much does it cost to visit Palazzo Vecchio?
Standard museum ticket: €12.50. Includes the main rooms (Salone dei Cinquecento, Studiolo, Quartiere degli Elementi, apartments). The secret passages tour (percorsi segreti): €4 additional, timed tour with small groups, strongly recommended for the experience of the hidden rooms and the view from the tower. The Tower (Torre di Arnolfo): €12.50 separate ticket. Book at museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it, advance booking recommended in summer.
How long does a visit to Palazzo Vecchio take?
The standard visit (main rooms): 1.5-2 hours. With the secret passages tour: 2.5-3 hours. The tower separately: add 45 minutes. The Palazzo Vecchio is significantly more time-intensive than its external appearance suggests, the density of decoration in every room requires time to absorb properly.
What is the tower of Palazzo Vecchio?
The Torre di Arnolfo (94 metres, begun 1310) was the tallest structure in Florence when built and was designed to be taller than any private tower in the city, an architectural assertion of civic supremacy over aristocratic power. The top of the tower gives the finest aerial view of Florence available without leaving the historic center: the Duomo from above, the Arno, the Oltrarno, and on clear days the hills of Fiesole and Settignano.
Curiosità sul Palazzo Vecchio
Il Palazzo Vecchio prese il suo nome attuale nel 1550, quando Cosimo I de' Medici si trasferì nel Palazzo Pitti (sull'Oltrarno) e il palazzo governativo in Piazza della Signoria divenne il vecchio palazzo, palazzo vecchio appunto. Prima di quella data era semplicemente il Palazzo della Signoria o il Palazzo del Popolo. La continuità governativa è straordinaria: l'edificio ospita uffici comunali ininterrottamente dal 1299, più di 700 anni di governo civico nello stesso edificio. Il Vasari progettò il corridoio sopraelevato (Corridoio Vasariano) che collega il Palazzo Vecchio agli Uffizi al Palazzo Pitti attraverso il Ponte Vecchio, una strada privata per i Medici che permetteva loro di attraversare l'intera città senza scendere in strada. Il corridoio è stato recentemente riaperto al pubblico dopo anni di lavori. Vedi anche: Florence · Uffizi · Florence museums.
