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Highlights

-Discover the Arts, the culture, history, and heritage of Florence
-Learn fascinating History and stories narrated by EU Audio Digital Tour Guide
-Explore the charming Old streets in Florence
-Discover hidden gems and off-the-beaten-path treasures

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-Duration 2 Hours

Overview

welcome on board with EU Travel Group,

Florence in italian called firenze,
a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region.
It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.

Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era.
It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center.

During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond.
Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions.

From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy
due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.

The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982.
The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments.
The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.

Due to Florence’s artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes ranked it as the most beautiful city in the world in 2010.

Florence plays an important role in Italian fashion and is ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world by Global Language Monitor
furthermore, it is a major national economic centre,
as well as a tourist and industrial hub.

Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a long period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune,

it was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. It was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe and the world from the 14th to 16th centuries.

The language spoken in the city during the 14th century came to be accepted as the model for what would become the Italian language.

Thanks especially to the works of the Tuscans Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, the Florentine dialect, above all the local dialects, was adopted as the basis for a national literary language

Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon and Hungary.
Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years’ War.
They similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome.

Florence was home to the Medici, one of European history’s most important noble families.

Lorenzo de’ Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century.

Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century: Leo X and Clement VII.

Catherine de Medici married King Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France.

Marie de’ Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future King Louis XIII. The Medici reigned as Grand
Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de’ Medici in 1737.

The Kingdom of Italy, which was established in 1861, moved its capital from Turin to Florence in 1865, although the capital was moved to Rome in 1871.

Florence was established by the Romans in 59 BC as a colony for veteran soldiers and was built in the style of an army camp.

Situated along the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre and in AD 285 became the capital of the Tuscia region.

the city experienced turbulent alternate periods of Ostrogoth and Byzantine rule, during which the city was fought over, helping to cause the population to fall to as low as 1,000 people.

Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century and Florence was in turn conquered by Charlemagne in 774 becoming part of the March of Tuscany centred on Lucca.

The population began to grow again and commerce prospered.

now you will learn about Rise of the Medici

Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the Uffizi Gallery
At the height of demographic expansion around 1325, the urban population may have been as great as 120,000, and the rural population around the city was probably close to 300,000.
The Black Death of 1348 reduced it by over half,

about 25,000 are said to have been supported by the city’s wool industry: in 1345 Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool combers (ciompi), who in 1378 rose up in a brief revolt against oligarchic rule in the Revolt of the Ciompi.

After their suppression, Florence came under the sway (1382–1434) of the Albizzi family, who became bitter rivals of the Medici.

In the 15th century, Florence was among the largest cities in Europe, with a population of 60,000, and was considered rich and economically successful.

Cosimo de’ Medici was the first Medici family member to essentially control the city from behind the scenes.

Although the city was technically a democracy of sorts, his power came from a vast patronage network along with his alliance to the new immigrants, the gente nuova (new people).

The fact that the Medici were bankers to the pope also contributed to their ascendancy. Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero, who was, soon after, succeeded by Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo in 1469.

Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Lorenzo was an accomplished poet and musician and brought composers and singers to Florence, including Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, and Heinrich Isaac.
By contemporary Florentines (and since), he was known as “Lorenzo the Magnificent” (Lorenzo il Magnifico).

Following Lorenzo de’ Medici’s death in 1492, he was succeeded by his son Piero II.

When the French king Charles VIII invaded northern Italy, Piero II chose to resist his army. But when he realised the size of the French army at the gates of Pisa, he had to accept the humiliating conditions of the French king.

These made the Florentines rebel, and they expelled Piero II. With his exile in 1494, the first period of Medici rule ended with the restoration of a republican government.

now we will know about Savonarola, Machiavelli, and the Medici popes.

Girolamo Savonarola being burnt at the stake in 1498.

The brooding Palazzo Vecchio is at centre right.

During this period, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola had become prior of the San Marco monastery in 1490.

He was famed for his penitential sermons, lambasting what he viewed as widespread immorality and attachment to material riches. He praised the exile of the Medici as the work of God, punishing them for their decadence.

He seized the opportunity to carry through political reforms leading to a more democratic rule.
But when Savonarola publicly accused Pope Alexander VI of corruption, he was banned from speaking in public.

When he broke this ban, he was excommunicated. The Florentines, tired of his teachings, turned against him and arrested him.
He was convicted as a heretic, hanged and burned at the stake on the Piazza della Signoria on 23 May 1498. His ashes were dispersed in the Arno river.

Another Florentine of this period was Niccolò Machiavelli, whose prescriptions for Florence’s regeneration under strong leadership have often been seen as a legitimization of political expediency and even malpractice.

Machiavelli was a political thinker, renowned for his political handbook The Prince, which is about ruling and exercising power.
Commissioned by the Medici, Machiavelli also wrote the Florentine Histories, the history of the city.

In 1512, the Medici retook control of Florence with the help of Spanish and Papal troops.

They were led by two cousins, Giovanni and Giulio de’ Medici, both of whom would later become Popes of the Catholic Church, (Leo X and Clement VII, respectively).

Both were generous patrons of the arts, commissioning works like Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library and Medici Chapel in Florence, to name just two.[27][28] Their reigns coincided with political upheaval in Italy, and thus in 1527, Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and re-established a theocratic republic on 16 May 1527, (Jesus Christ was named King of Florence)

The Medici returned to power in Florence in 1530, with the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the blessings of Pope Clement VII (Giulio de’ Medici).
Florence officially became a monarchy in 1531, when Emperor Charles and Pope Clement named Alessandro de Medici as Duke of the Florentine Republic.

The Medici’s monarchy would last over two centuries. Alessandro’s successor, Cosimo I de Medici, was named Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569; in all Tuscany, only the Republic of Lucca (later a Duchy) and the Principality of Piombino were independent from Florence.

now we will take you to 18th and 19th centuries.

Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and his family. Leopold was, from 1765 to 1790, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The extinction of the Medici dynasty and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany’s temporary inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown.

It became a secundogeniture of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, who were deposed for the House of Bourbon-Parma in 1801. From 1801 to 1807 Florence was the capital of the Napoleonic client state Kingdom of Etruria.

The Bourbon-Parma were deposed in December 1807 when Tuscany was annexed by France.
Florence was the prefecture of the French département of Arno from 1808 to the fall of Napoleon in 1814. The Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty was restored on the throne of Tuscany at the Congress of Vienna but finally deposed in 1859.

Tuscany became a region of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Florence replaced Turin as Italy’s capital in 1865 and, in an effort to modernise the city, the old market in the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio and many medieval houses were pulled down and replaced by a more formal street plan with newer houses.

The Piazza (first renamed Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, then Piazza della Repubblica, the present name) was significantly widened and a large triumphal arch was constructed at the west end.

This development was unpopular and was prevented from continuing by the efforts of several British and American people living in the city.
A museum recording the destruction stands nearby today.

The country’s second capital city was superseded by Rome six years later, after the withdrawal of the French troops allowed the capture of Rome.

now we will move to 20th century

Porte Sante cemetery, burial place of notable figures of Florentine history

During World War II the city experienced a year-long German occupation (1943–1944) being part of the Italian Social Republic.
Hitler declared it an open city on 3 July 1944 as troops of the British 8th Army closed in.

In early August, the retreating Germans decided to demolish all the bridges along the Arno linking the district of Oltrarno to the rest of the city, making it difficult for troops of the 8th Army to cross.

However, at the last moment Charles Steinhauslin, at the time consul of 26 countries in Florence, convinced the German general in Italy that the Ponte Vecchio was not to be destroyed due to its historical value.

Instead, an equally historic area of streets directly to the south of the bridge, including part of the Corridoio Vasariano, was destroyed using mines.

Since then the bridges have been restored to their original forms using as many of the remaining materials as possible, but the buildings surrounding the Ponte Vecchio have been rebuilt in a style combining the old with modern design.

Shortly before leaving Florence, as they knew that they would soon have to retreat, the Germans executed many freedom fighters and political opponents publicly, in streets and squares including the Piazza Santo Spirito.

1/5 Mahratta Light Infantry, Florence, 28 August 1944

Florence was liberated by New Zealand, South African and British troops on 4 August 1944 alongside partisans from the Tuscan Committee of National Liberation (CTLN).

The Allied soldiers who died driving the Germans from Tuscany are buried in cemeteries outside the city (Americans about nine kilometres or 5+1/2 miles south of the city, British and Commonwealth soldiers a few kilometres east of the centre on the right bank of the Arno).

At the end of World War II in May 1945, the US Army’s Information and Educational Branch was ordered to establish an overseas university campus for demobilised American service men and women in Florence.

The first American university for service personnel was established in June 1945 at the School of Aeronautics. Some 7,500 soldier-students were to pass through the university during its four one-month sessions (see G. I. American Universities).

In November 1966, the Arno flooded parts of the centre, damaging many art treasures. Around the city there are tiny placards on the walls noting where the flood waters reached at their highest point.

now you need to go in the front of cathderal santa maria del fiore.

Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in English Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower),

is the cathedral of Florence,in Italian called: Duomo di Firenze).

It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto’s Campanile.

These three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major tourist attraction of Tuscany.

The basilica is one of Italy’s largest churches, and until the development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

The cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is Giuseppe Betori.

Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of Florence’s second cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata

the first was the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze, the first building of which was consecrated as a church in 393 by St. Ambrose of Milan.

The ancient structure, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age, according to the 14th-century Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani and was no longer large enough to serve the growing population of the city.

Other major Tuscan cities had undertaken ambitious reconstructions of their cathedrals during the Late Medieval period, such as Pisa and particularly Siena where the enormous proposed extensions were never completed.

City council approved the design of Arnolfo di Cambio for the new church in 1294.
Di Cambio was also architect of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio.
He designed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on 9 September 1296, by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate ever sent to Florence.

The building of this vast project was to last 140 years; Arnolfo’s plan for the eastern end, although maintained in concept, was greatly expanded in size.

After Arnolfo died in 1302, work on the cathedral slowed for almost 50 years. When the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata, the project gained a new impetus.

In 1331, the Arte della Lana, the guild of wool merchants, took over patronage for the construction of the cathedral and in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee the work. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, Giotto continued di Cambio’s design.

His major accomplishment was the building of the campanile.

When Giotto died on 8 January 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building until work was halted due to the Black Death in 1348.

The Duomo, as if completed, in a fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto, painted in the 1360s, before the commencement of the dome
In 1349, work resumed on the cathedral under a series of architects, starting with Francesco Talenti, who finished the campanile and enlarged the overall project to include the apse and the side chapels.

In 1359, Talenti was succeeded by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini (1360–1369) who divided the centre nave in four square bays. Other architects were Alberto Arnoldi, Giovanni d’Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravanti and Andrea Orcagna. By 1375, the old church Santa Reparata was pulled down.
The nave was finished by 1380, and only the dome remained incomplete until 1418.

On 19 August 1418, the Arte della Lana announced an architectural design competition for erecting Neri’s dome.

The two main competitors were two master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, the latter of whom was supported by Cosimo de Medici.

Ghiberti had been the winner of a competition for a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery in 1401 and lifelong competition between the two remained sharp.
Brunelleschi won and received the commission.

Ghiberti, appointed coadjutor, drew a salary equal to Brunelleschi’s and, though neither was awarded the announced prize of 200 florins, was promised equal credit, although he spent most of his time on other projects.

When Brunelleschi became ill, or feigned illness, the project was briefly in the hands of Ghiberti.
But Ghiberti soon had to admit that the whole project was beyond him. In 1423, Brunelleschi was back in charge and took over sole responsibility.

Work on the dome began in 1420 and finished in 1436.
The cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on 25 March 1436, (the first day of the year according to the Florentine calendar).

It was the first ‘octagonal’ dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame.
It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance.

During the consecration in 1436, Guillaume Dufay’s motet Nuper rosarum flores was performed.

The decoration of the exterior of the cathedral, begun in the 14th century, was not completed until 1887, when the polychrome marble façade was completed with the design of Emilio De Fabris.
The floor of the church was relaid in marble tiles in the 16th century.

The exterior walls are faced in alternate vertical and horizontal bands of polychrome marble from Carrara (white), Prato (green), Siena (red), Lavenza and a few other places.
These marble bands had to repeat the already existing bands on the walls of the earlier adjacent baptistery the Battistero di San Giovanni and Giotto’s Bell Tower.

There are two side doors: the Doors of the Canonici (south side) and the Door of the Mandorla (north side) with sculptures by Nanni di Banco, Donatello, and Jacopo della Quercia.

The six side windows, notable for their delicate tracery and ornaments, are separated by pilasters.
Only the four windows closest to the transept admit light; the other two are merely ornamental.
The clerestory windows are round, a common feature in Italian Gothic.

Plan and structure

Plan of the church with various extension phases
The cathedral of Florence is built as a basilica, having a wide central nave of four square bays, with an aisle on either side. The chancel and transepts are of identical polygonal plan, separated by two smaller polygonal chapels.

The whole plan forms a Latin cross.
The nave and aisles are separated by wide pointed Gothic arches resting on composite piers.

The dimensions of the building are enormous: building area 8,300 m2 (89,340 sq ft), length 153 m (502 ft), width 38 m (125 ft), width at the crossing 90 m (300 ft).

The height of the arches in the aisles is 23 m (75 ft). The height of the dome is 114.5 m (375.7 ft).[11] It has the fifth tallest dome in the world.

Planned sculpture for the exterior.

The Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral.

Donatello, then in his early twenties, was commissioned to carve a statue of David in 1408, to top one of the buttresses of Florence Cathedral, though it was never placed there.

Nanni di Banco was commissioned to carve a marble statue of Isaiah, at the same scale, in the same year.
One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the opera for several years.

In 1410 Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta.
In 1409-1411 Donatello made a statue of Saint John the Evangelist which until 1588 was in a niche of the old cathedral façade.

Between 1415 and 1426, Donatello created five statues for the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, also known as the Duomo.

These works are the Beardless Prophet; Bearded Prophet (both from 1415); the Sacrifice of Isaac (1421); Habbakuk (1423–25); and Jeremiah (1423–26); which follow the classical models for orators and are characterized by strong portrait details.

A figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatello’s direction.

A statue of David by Michelangelo was completed 1501-1504 although it could not be placed on the buttress because of its six-ton weight.
In 2010 a fiberglass replica of “David” was placed for one day on the Florence cathedral.

the Facade

Model of the original medieval façade in the museum of the cathedral

Modern façade built in the 19th century

Façade of the cathedral

The original façade, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and usually attributed to Giotto, was actually begun twenty years after Giotto’s death.

A mid-15th-century pen-and-ink drawing of this so-called Giotto’s façade is visible in the Codex Rustici, and in the drawing of Bernardino Poccetti in 1587, both on display in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo.

This façade was the collective work of several artists, among them Andrea Orcagna and Taddeo Gaddi.

This original façade was completed in only its lower portion and then left unfinished. It was dismantled in 1587–1588 by the Medici court architect Bernardo Buontalenti, ordered by Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici, as it appeared totally outmoded in Renaissance times.

Some of the original sculptures are on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo, behind the cathedral. Others are now in the Berlin Museum and in the Louvre.

The competition for a new façade turned into a huge corruption scandal.[citation needed] The wooden model for the façade of Buontalenti is on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo.

A few new designs had been proposed in later years, but the models (of Giovanni Antonio Dosio, Giovanni de’ Medici with Alessandro Pieroni and Giambologna) were not accepted. The façade was then left bare until the 19th century.

Main portal by Augusto Passaglia

Statue of Saint Reparata, to whom the previous cathedral was dedicated, in the main portal

In 1864, a competition held to design a new façade was won by Emilio De Fabris (1808–1883) in 1871.

Work began in 1876 and was completed in 1887.

This neo-gothic façade in white, green and red marble forms a harmonious entity with the cathedral, Giotto’s bell tower and the Baptistery, but some think it is excessively decorated.

The whole façade is dedicated to the Mother of Christ.

Main Portal
The three huge bronze doors date from 1899 to 1903.

They are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna.

The mosaics in the lunettes above the doors were designed by Niccolò Barabino. They represent (from left to right): Charity among the founders of Florentine philanthropic institutions; Christ enthroned with Mary and John the Baptist; and Florentine artisans, merchants and humanists.

The pediment above the central portal contains a half-relief by Tito Sarrocchi of Mary enthroned holding a flowered scepter. Giuseppe Cassioli sculpted the right-hand door.

On top of the façade is a series of niches with the twelve Apostles with, in the middle, the Madonna with Child. Between the rose window and the tympanum, there is a gallery with busts of great Florentine artists.

if you will have access inside cathderal

the Interior of the cathedral

Huge clock decorated by Paolo Uccello

Dante and the Divine Comedy

Trompe-1 of Niccolò da Tolentino.

The Last Judgement by Vasari and Zuccari (from directly underneath)

Details of The Last Judgement by Vasari and Zuccari

Tomb of Antonio d’Orso by Tino da Camaino
The Gothic interior is vast and gives an empty impression.

The relative bareness of the church corresponds with the austerity of religious life, as preached by Girolamo Savonarola.

Many decorations in the church have been lost in the course of time, or have been transferred to the Museum Opera del Duomo, such as the magnificent cantorial pulpits (the singing galleries for the choristers) of Luca della Robbia and Donatello.

As this cathedral was built with funds from the public, some important works of art in this church honour illustrious men and military leaders of Florence

Lorenzo Ghiberti had a large artistic impact on the cathedral. Ghiberti worked with Filippo Brunelleschi on the cathedral for eighteen years and had a large number of projects on almost the whole east end.

Some of his works were the stained glass designs, the bronze shrine of Saint Zenobius and marble revetments on the outside of the cathedral.

Dante Before the City of Florence by Domenico di Michelino (1465).

This painting is especially interesting because it shows us, apart from scenes of the Divine Comedy, a view on Florence in 1465, a Florence such as Dante himself could not have seen in his time.

Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello (1436).

This almost monochrome fresco, transferred to canvas in the 19th century, is painted in terra verde, a color closest to the patina of bronze.
Equestrian statue of Niccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno (1456).

This fresco, transferred on canvas in the 19th century, in the same style as the previous one, is painted in a color resembling marble. However, it is more richly decorated and gives more the impression of movement.

Both frescoes portray the condottieri as heroic figures riding triumphantly.
Both painters had problems when applying in painting the new rules of perspective to foreshortening: they used two unifying points, one for the horse and one for the pedestal, instead a single unifying point.

Busts of Giotto (by Benedetto da Maiano), Brunelleschi (by Buggiano – 1447), Marsilio Ficino, and Antonio Squarcialupi (a most famous organist). These busts all date from the 15th and the 16th centuries.

Above the main door is the colossal clock face with fresco portraits of four Prophets or Evangelists by Paolo Uccello (1443). This one-handed liturgical clock shows the 24 hours of the hora italica (Italian time), a period of time ending with sunset at 24 hours.

This timetable was used until the 18th century.
This is one of the few clocks from that time that still exist and are in working order.

The church is particularly notable for its 44 stained glass windows, the largest undertaking of this kind in Italy in the 14th and 15th century.

The windows in the aisles and in the transept depict saints from the Old and the New Testament, while the circular windows in the drum of the dome or above the entrance depict Christ and Mary.

They are the work of the greatest Florentine artists of their times, such as Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno.

Christ crowning Mary as Queen, the stained-glass circular window above the clock, with a rich range of coloring, was designed by Gaddo Gaddi in the early 14th century.

Donatello designed the stained-glass window (Coronation of the Virgin) in the drum of the dome (the only one that can be seen from the nave).

The beautiful funeral monument of Antonio d’Orso (1323), bishop of Florence, was made by Tino da Camaino, the most important funeral sculptor of his time.

The monumental crucifix, behind the Bishop’s Chair at the high altar, is by Benedetto da Maiano (1495–1497).

The choir enclosure is the work of the famous Bartolommeo Bandinelli.
The ten-paneled bronze doors of the sacristy were made by Luca della Robbia, who has also two glazed terracotta works inside the sacristy: Angel with Candlestick and Resurrection of Christ.

In the back of the middle of the three apses is the altar of Saint Zanobius, first bishop of Florence.

Its silver shrine, a masterpiece of Ghiberti, contains the urn with his relics. The central compartment shows us one of his miracles, the reviving of a dead child.

Above this shrine is the painting Last Supper by the lesser-known Giovanni Balducci.
There was also a glass-paste mosaic panel The Bust of Saint Zanobius by the 16th-century miniaturist Monte di Giovanni, but it is now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo.

Many decorations date from the 16th-century patronage of the Grand Dukes, such as the pavement in colored marble, attributed to Baccio d’Agnolo and Francesco da Sangallo (1520–26).

Some pieces of marble from the façade were used, topside down, in the flooring (as was shown by the restoration of the floor after the 1966 flooding).

The ceiling of the dome is decorated with a representation of The Last Judgment. Originally left whitewashed following its completion it was the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici who decided to have the ceiling of the dome painted.

This enormous work, 3,600 metres² (38 750 ft²) of painted surface, was started in 1572 by Giorgio Vasari and would not be completed until 1579.

The upper portion, near the lantern, representing The 24 Elders of Apocalypse was finished by Vasari before his death in 1574.

Federico Zuccari with the assistance of Bartolomeo Carducci, Domenico Passignano and Stefano Pieri finished the other portions: (from top to bottom) Choirs of Angels; Christ, Mary and Saints; Virtues, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Beatitudes; and at the bottom of the cupola: Capital Sins and Hell.

These frescoes are considered Zuccari’s greatest work.
But the quality of the work is uneven because of the input of different artists and the different techniques.

Vasari had used true fresco, while Zuccari had painted in secco.

During the restoration work, which ended in 1995, the entire pictorial cycle of The Last Judgment was photographed with specially designed equipment and all the information collected in a catalogue.

All the restoration information along with reconstructed images of the frescos were stored and managed in the Thesaurus Florentinus computer system.

the Crypt

The cathedral underwent difficult excavations between 1965 and 1974.

The archaeological history of this huge area was reconstructed through the work of Dr.

Franklin Toker: remains of Roman houses, an early Christian pavement, ruins of the former cathedral of Santa Reparata and successive enlargements of this church.

Close to the entrance, in the part of the crypt open to the public, is the tomb of Brunelleschi.

While its location is prominent, the actual tomb is simple and humble.

That the architect was permitted such a prestigious burial place is proof of the high esteem he was held in by the Florentines.

now you need to go in the front of Giotto’s tower in italain called Campanile.

Giotto’s Campanile is a free-standing campanile that is part of the complex of buildings that make up Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo in Florence.

Standing adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistry of St.John.

the tower is one of the showpieces of Florentine Gothic architecture with its design by Giotto, its rich sculptural decorations and its polychrome marble encrustations.

The slender structure is square in plan with 14.45 metre (47.41 ft) sides. It is 84.7 metres (277.9 ft) tall and has polygonal buttresses at each corner.

The tower is divided horizontally into five stages.

now you will learn about the History of the tower

View of the bell tower from the east

Lozenges of north side.
Hexagonal Panel from side of Gitto’s Campanile.

Showing Phoreus: the beginning of law making
Original hexagonal panel depicting jurisprudence.

The lower levels with the hexagonal panels, lozenges and statues.

On the death in 1302 of Arnolfo di Cambio, the first Master of the Works of the Cathedral, and after an interruption of more than thirty years, the celebrated painter Giotto di Bondone was nominated as his successor in 1334.[1] At that time he was 67 years old.

Giotto concentrated his energy on the design and construction of a campanile (bell tower) for the cathedral. He had become an eminent architect, thanks to the growing autonomy of the architect-designer in relation to the craftsmen since the first half of the 13th century.

The first stone was laid on 19 July 1334.
His design was in harmony with the polychromy of the cathedral, as applied by Arnolfo di Cambio, giving the tower a view as if it were painted.
In his design, he also applied chiaroscuro and some form of perspective instead of a strict linear drawing of the campanile.

And instead of a filigree skeleton of a gothic building, he applied a surface of coloured marble in geometric patterns.

When he died in 1337, he had only finished the lower floor with its marble external revetment: geometric patterns of white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato and red marble from Siena.

This lower floor is decorated on three sides with bas-reliefs in hexagonal panels, seven on each side. When the entrance door was enlarged in 1348, two panels were moved to the empty northern side and only much later, five more panels were commissioned from Luca della Robbia in 1437.

The number “seven” has a special meaning in Biblical sense: it symbolizes human perfectibility.

It is difficult to attribute artistic paternity to these panels.
Some may be by Giotto himself, the others by Andrea Pisano (or their workshops).

Through this work, Giotto has become, together with Brunelleschi (dome of the cathedral of Florence) and Alberti (with his treatise De re aedificatoria, 1450), one of the founding fathers of Italian Renaissance architecture.

Giotto was succeeded as Master of the Works in 1343 by Andrea Pisano.

famous already for the South Doors of the Baptistery.
He continued the construction of the bell tower, scrupulously following Giotto’s design.

He added, above the lower level of Giotto, a second fascia, this time decorated with lozenge-shaped panels (1347–1341).

He built two more levels, with four niches on each side and each level, but the second row of niches are empty. Construction came to a halt in 1348, year of the disastrous Black Death.

Pisano was replaced in his turn by Francesco Talenti who built the top three levels, with the large windows, completing the bell tower in 1359.

He did not build the spire designed by Giotto, thus lowering the designed height of 122 metres (400 ft) to 84.7 metres (277.9 ft).

The top, with its scenic panorama of Florence and the surrounding hills, can be reached by climbing 414 steps.

now you look up you will see the Brunelleschi’s dome:

After a hundred years of construction and by the beginning of the 15th century, the structure was still missing its dome.

The basic features of the dome had been designed by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1296.

His brick model, 4.6 m (15.1 ft) high, 9.2 m (30.2 ft) long, was standing in a side aisle of the unfinished building, and had long been sacrosanct.

It called for an octagonal dome higher and wider than any that had ever been built, with no external buttresses to keep it from spreading and falling under its own weight.

The commitment to reject traditional Gothic buttresses had been made when Neri di Fioravanti’s model was chosen over a competing one by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini.

That architectural choice, in 1367, was one of the first events of the Italian Renaissance, marking a break with the Medieval Gothic style and a return to the classic Mediterranean dome.

Italian architects regarded Gothic flying buttresses as ugly makeshifts. Furthermore, the use of buttresses was forbidden in Florence, as the style was favored by central Italy’s traditional enemies to the north.

Neri’s model depicted a massive inner dome, open at the top to admit light, like Rome’s Pantheon, partly supported by the inner dome, but enclosed in a thinner outer shell, to keep out the weather.

It was to stand on an unbuttressed octagonal drum. Neri’s dome would need an internal defense against spreading (hoop stress), but none had yet been designed.

The building of such a masonry dome posed many technical problems.

Brunelleschi looked to the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The dome of the Pantheon is a single shell of concrete, the formula for which had long since been forgotten.

The Pantheon had employed structural centring to support the concrete dome while it cured.[21] This could not be the solution in the case of a dome this size and would put the church out of use.

For the height and breadth of the dome designed by Neri, starting 52 m (171 ft) above the floor and spanning 44 m (144 ft), there was not enough timber in Tuscany to build the scaffolding and forms.

Brunelleschi chose to follow such design and employed a double shell, made of sandstone and marble.

Brunelleschi would have to build the dome out of brick, due to its light weight compared to stone and being easier to form, and with nothing under it during construction.

To illustrate his proposed structural plan, he constructed a wooden and brick model with the help of Donatello and Nanni di Banco, a model which is still displayed in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.

The model served as a guide for the craftsmen, but was intentionally incomplete, so as to ensure Brunelleschi’s control over the construction.

now time to learn about the Interior of the dome:

Brunelleschi’s solutions were ingenious.
The spreading problem was solved by a set of four internal horizontal stone and iron chains, serving as barrel hoops, embedded within the inner dome: one at the top, one at the bottom, with the remaining two evenly spaced between them. A fifth chain, made of wood, was placed between the first and second of the stone chains.

Since the dome was octagonal rather than round, a simple chain, squeezing the dome like a barrel hoop, would have put all its pressure on the eight corners of the dome.

The chains needed to be rigid octagons, stiff enough to hold their shape, so as not to deform the dome as they held it together.

Each of Brunelleschi’s stone chains was built like an octagonal railroad track with parallel rails and cross ties, all made of sandstone beams 43 cm (17 in) in diameter and no more than 2.3 m (7.5 ft) long. The rails were connected end-to-end with lead-glazed iron splices.

The cross ties and rails were notched together and then covered with the bricks and mortar of the inner dome. The cross ties of the bottom chain can be seen protruding from the drum at the base of the dome.

The others are hidden. Each stone chain was supposed to be reinforced with a standard iron chain made of interlocking links, but a magnetic survey conducted in the 1970s failed to detect any evidence of iron chains, which if they exist are deeply embedded in the thick masonry walls.

Brunelleschi also included vertical “ribs” set on the corners of the octagon, curving towards the center point. The ribs, 4 m (13 ft) deep, are supported by 16 concealed ribs radiating from center.

The ribs had slits to take beams that supported platforms, thus allowing the work to progress upward without the need for scaffolding.

A circular masonry dome can be built without supports, called centering, because each course of bricks is a horizontal arch that resists compression.

In Florence, the octagonal inner dome was thick enough for an imaginary circle to be embedded in it at each level, a feature that would hold the dome up eventually, but could not hold the bricks in place while the mortar was still wet.

Brunelleschi used a herringbone brick pattern to transfer the weight of the freshly laid bricks to the nearest vertical ribs of the non-circular dome.

A modern understanding of physical laws and the mathematical tools for calculating stresses were centuries in the future. Brunelleschi, like all cathedral builders, had to rely on intuition and whatever he could learn from the large scale models he built.

To lift 37,000 tons of material, including over 4 million bricks, he invented hoisting machines and lewissons for hoisting large stones.

These specially designed machines and his structural innovations were Brunelleschi’s chief contribution to architecture. Although he was executing an aesthetic plan made half a century earlier, it is his name, rather than Neri’s, that is commonly associated with the dome.

Brunelleschi’s ability to crown the dome with a lantern was questioned and he had to undergo another competition, even though there had been evidence that Brunelleschi had been working on a design for a lantern for the upper part of the dome. The evidence is shown in the curvature, which was made steeper than the original model.

He was declared the winner over his competitors Lorenzo Ghiberti and Antonio Ciaccheri. His design (now on display in the Museum Opera del Duomo) was for an octagonal lantern with eight radiating buttresses and eight high arched windows.

Construction of the lantern was begun a few months before his death in 1446. Then, for 15 years, little progress was possible, due to alterations by several architects.

The lantern was finally completed by Brunelleschi’s friend Michelozzo in 1461. The conical roof was crowned with a gilt copper ball and cross, containing holy relics, by Verrocchio in 1469.

This brings the total height of the dome and lantern to 114.5 m (376 ft). This copper ball was struck by lightning on 17 July 1600 and fell down. It was replaced by an even larger one two years later.

Cupola of the Dome:

The commission for this gilt copper ball [atop the lantern] went to the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop there was at this time a young apprentice named Leonardo da Vinci.

Fascinated by Filippo’s [Brunelleschi’s] machines, which Verrocchio used to hoist the ball, Leonardo made a series of sketches of them and, as a result, is often given credit for their invention.

Leonardo might have also participated in the design of the bronze ball, as stated in the G manuscript of Paris “Remember the way we soldered the ball of Santa Maria del Fiore”.

The decorations of the drum gallery by Baccio d’Agnolo were never finished after being disapproved by no one less than Michelangelo.

A huge statue of Brunelleschi now sits outside the Palazzo dei Canonici in the Piazza del Duomo, looking thoughtfully up towards his greatest achievement, the dome that would forever dominate the panorama of Florence.

It is still the largest masonry dome in the world.

The building of the cathedral had started in 1296 with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1469 with the placing of Verrochio’s copper ball atop the lantern. But the facade was still unfinished and would remain so until the 19th century.

now you need to go to Piazza della Signoria

on your way you will learn about the Medici family

The Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region north of Florence, and they are first mentioned in a document of 1230.

The origin of the name is uncertain. Medici is the plural of medico, meaning “medical doctor”.

The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank in Florence in 1397.

Rise to power
For most of the 13th century, the leading banking centre in Italy was Siena.

But in 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the Bonsignoris, went bankrupt, and the city of Siena lost its status as the banking centre of Italy to Florence.

Until the late 14th century, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293, the Ordinances of Justice were enacted; effectively, they became the constitution of the Republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance.

The city’s numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses built by the prospering merchant class.

The main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medici, first under Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de’ Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de’ Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici Bank—then Europe’s largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence and elsewhere. In 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled.

The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria (civic government) led by Tommaso Soderini, Oddo Altoviti and Lucca Pitti was elected and Cosimo returned.

The Medici became the city’s leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries.

Florence remained a republic until 1537, traditionally marking the end of the High Renaissance in Florence, but the instruments of republican government were firmly under the control of the Medici and their allies, save during intervals after 1494 and 1527.

Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders.

The Medici family was connected to most other elite families of the time through marriages of convenience, partnerships, or employment, so the family had a central position in the social network: several families had systematic access to the rest of the elite families only through the Medici, perhaps similar to banking relationships.

Some examples of these families include the Bardi, Altoviti, Ridolfi, Cavalcanti and the Tornabuoni. This has been suggested as a reason for the rise of the Medici family.

Members of the family rose to some prominence in the early 14th century in the wool trade, especially with France and Spain.

Despite the presence of some Medici in the city’s government institutions, they were still far less notable than other outstanding families such as the Albizzi or the Strozzi.

One Salvestro de’ Medici was speaker of the woolmakers’ guild during the Ciompi revolt of 1378–82, and one Antonio de’ Medici was exiled from Florence in 1396.

Involvement in another plot in 1400 caused all branches of the family to be banned from Florentine politics for twenty years, with the exception of two.

The Medici briefly became leaders of Christendom through their two famous 16th century popes, Leo X and Clement VII. Both also served as de facto political rulers of Rome, Florence, and large swaths of Italy known as the Papal States.

They were generous patrons of the arts who commissioned masterpieces such as Raphael’s Transfiguration and Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment; however, their reigns coincided with troubles for the Vatican, including Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation and the infamous sack of Rome in 1527.

Leo X’s fun-loving pontificate bankrupted Vatican coffers and accrued massive debts. From Leo’s election as pope in 1513 to his death in 1521, Florence was overseen, in turn, by Giuliano de’ Medici, Duke of Nemours, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino,

and Giulio de’ Medici, the latter of whom became Pope Clement VII.

Clement VII’s tumultuous pontificate was dominated by a rapid succession of political crises—many long in the making—that resulted in the sack of Rome by the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1527 and rise of the Salviati, Altoviti and Strozzi as the leading bankers of the Roman Curie.

From the time of Clement’s election as pope in 1523 until the sack of Rome, Florence was governed by the young Ippolito de’ Medici (future cardinal and vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church), Alessandro de’ Medici (future duke of Florence), and their guardians.

In 1530, after allying himself with Charles V, Pope Clement VII succeeded in securing the engagement of Charles V’s daughter Margeret of Austria to his illegitimate nephew (reputedly his son) Alessandro de’ Medici.

Clement also convinced Charles V to name Alessandro as Duke of Florence.

Thus began the reign of Medici monarchs in Florence, which lasted two centuries.

now you arrived to

Piazza della Signoria

is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio.

It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city.

It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.

The Palazzo Vecchio

(“Old Palace”) is the town hall of the city. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany.

Overlooking the square with its copy of Michelangelo’s David statue as well the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi,

it is one of the most significant private places in Italy, and it hosts cultural points and museums.

Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence,

it was also given several other names: Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo dei Priori, and Palazzo Ducale, in accordance with the varying use of the palace during its long history.

The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke’s residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti.

The Loggia dei Lanzi
consists of wide arches open to the street, three bays wide and one bay deep.
The arches rest on clustered columns with Corinthian capitals.

The wide arches appealed so much to the Florentines, that Michelangelo even proposed that they should be continued all around the Piazza della Signoria.
The vivacious construction of the Loggia is in stark contrast with the severe architecture of the Palazzo Vecchio.
It is effectively an open-air sculpture gallery of antique and Renaissance art including the Medici

now you arrived to uffizii buliding
The Uffizi Gallery in Italian: Galleria degli Uffizi, is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence

in the region of Tuscany, Italy.

One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given to the city of Florence under the famous Patto di famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress. The Uffizi is one of the first modern museums.

The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865.

The building of the Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de’ Medici’s as a means to consolidate his administrative control of the various committees, agencies, and guilds established in Florence’s Republican past so as to accommodate them all one place, hence the name uffizi, “offices”. The construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti; it was completed in 1581.

The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures.

The cortile (internal courtyard) is so long, narrow and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians

treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe. Vasari, a painter and architect as well, emphasised

its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades’ continuous roof cornices, and unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the palace-fronts stand.

The niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century.The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive.

The project was intended to display prime art works of the Medici collections on the piano nobile;

the plan was carried out by his son, Grand Duke Francesco I. He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels; it became a highly influential attraction of a Grand Tour. The octagonal room was completed in 1584.

Over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century.

now you are close to ponte vecchio

The Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”, Italian pronunciation is a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy.

The only bridge in Florence spared from destruction during the Second World War, it is noted for the shops built along it; building shops on such bridges was once a common practice.

Butchers, tanners, and farmers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers, and souvenir sellers.

The Ponte Vecchio’s two neighboring bridges are the Ponte Santa Trinita and the Ponte alle Grazie.

The bridge connects via Por Santa Maria (Lungarno degli Acciaiuoli and Lungarno degli Archibusieri) to via de ‘Guicciardini (Borgo San Jacopo and via de’ Bardi).

The name was given to what was the oldest Florentine bridge when the bridge to the Carraia was built, then called “Ponte Nuovo” in contrast to the pons Vetus.

Beyond the historical value, the bridge over time has played a central role in the city road system, starting from when it connected the Roman Florentia with the Via Cassia Nuova commissioned by the emperor Hadrian in 123 AD.

In contemporary times, despite being closed to vehicular traffic, the bridge is crossed by a considerable pedestrian flow generated both by the notoriety of the place itself and by the fact that it connects places of high tourist interest on the two banks of the river: piazza del Duomo, piazza della Signoria on one side with the area of Palazzo Pitti and Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno.

The bridge appears in the list drawn up in 1901 by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Fine Arts, as a monumental building to be considered national artistic heritage.

The bridge spans the Arno at its narrowest point where it is believed that a bridge was first built in Roman times, when the via Cassia crossed the river at this point.

The Roman piers were of stone, the superstructure of wood.

The bridge first appears in a document of 996 and was destroyed by a flood in 1117 and reconstructed in stone. In 1218 the Ponte alla Carraia, a wooden structure, was established nearby which led to it being referred to as “Ponte Nuovo” relative to the older (Vecchio) structure.

It was swept away again in 1333 except for two of its central piers, as noted by Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica.

It was rebuilt in 1345.

Giorgio Vasari recorded the traditional view of his day that attributed its design to Taddeo Gaddi besides Giotto one of the few artistic names of the trecento still recalled two hundred years later.

Modern historians present Neri di Fioravanti as a possible candidate as builder.

Sheltered in a little loggia at the central opening of the bridge is a weathered dedication stone, which once read Nel trentatrè dopo il mille-trecento, il ponte cadde, per diluvio dell’ acque: poi dieci anni, come al Comun piacque, rifatto fu con questo adornamento.

The Torre dei Mannelli was built at the southeast corner of the bridge to defend it.

The bridge consists of three segmental arches: the main arch has a span of 30 meters (98 feet) the two side arches each span 27 meters (89 feet).

The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters (11½ to 14½ feet), and the span-to-rise ratio 5:1

The shallow segmental arches, which require fewer piers than the semicircular arch traditionally used by Romans, enabled ease of access and navigation for animal-drawn carts.

Another notable design element is the large piazza at the center of the bridge that Leon Battista Alberti described as a prominent ornament in the city.

A stone with an inscription from Dante (Paradiso xvi. 140-7) records the spot at the entrance to the bridge where Buondelmonte de’ Buondelmonti was murdered by the Amidei clan in 1215, which began the urban fighting of the Guelfs and Ghibellines.

The bridge has always hosted shops and merchants who displayed their goods on tables before their premises, after authorization by the Bargello (a sort of a lord mayor, a magistrate and a police authority).

this was our last stop for this tour i hope that you enjoyed with us.

thanks for being with EU travel group