Palazzo Vecchio
Piazza della Signora I - 50122 Firenze
The courtyard, designed by Michelozzo (1470), decorated with stucco work and frescoes by Vasari and commissioned for the marriage of Francesco de Medici and Jane of Austria (1565), sets the scene. Inside the fortress is a magical palace, epitomised by the small porphyry fountain standing in the middle of the cortile, surmounted by a winged genius. The Vasari staircase leads to the first floor with its immense Hall of the Five Hundred, commissioned by Savonarola to accommodate meetings of the Republic Council which had so many members that only one third could enter at one time. When the Medici returned to power, they made it their reception and festivity hall. Decorated with frescoes relating Florence's victories over Pisa and Siena, watched over by Cosimo who, flanked with angels, observes the scene from the central coffer, the Hall gives no hint of what the adjoining room is like: the studiolo of Francesco de Medici, a keen student of alchemy, is a secluded study, as distinctively discreet as the Hall is imposing and pompous. The visit continues with the apartments of Leo X, leading to the second floor which has three main parts: the Elements Apartments with their allegoric and mythological decoration, the Eleanora of Toledo's Apartments (Cosimo's wife), in honour of women and womanly virtues, the Priors' Apartments (the admirable Lily Chamber, with its golden fleur-de-lys against a blue background covering walls and ceiling coffers and the Map Chamber with cupboards decorated with painted maps illustrating the world as it was then known).
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