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349:, some palaces of noble families, as well as craftsmen's shops and residences. The demolition was presented as a necessity if the area's insanitary conditions were to be improved, but was in reality led above all to building speculation and to legitimization of the will of the emerging middle-class emergente, protagonist in the events immediately prior to unification.
683:"...e del bello e nobile tempio de' Fiorentini... i Fiorentini levaro il loro idolo il quale appellavono Io Iddio Marte e puoscalo la su un' alta torre presso al fiume d'Arno e nol vollone rompere nè spezzare perocchÊ per loro antiche memorie trovavano che il desto idolo di Marti era consegrato sotto ascendente di tal pianeta... (Villani, i.60).
663:
With the piazza's demolition and reconstruction, the continuity of the area's festivals was broken. For example, the Palio dei barberi ceased in the 19th century, as did the two Easter day processions that led up to the
Scoppio del Carro (the Brindellone procession drawn by oxen from near Porta al
570:
The north side is about 75 metres long and is made up of a single large building. On its ground floor are Caffè Gilli (to the right) and of the Caffè Paszkowski (on the left). Its east end is the connection between the piazza and via Roma, and at its west end is the piazza's connection with via
394:
was inaugurated. This monument gave the piazza its original name. An old photograph taken on the day of the inauguration show the buildings of the square still incomplete and covered for the civil ceremony in scenery representing good luck. The statue, a commemorative and rather rhetorical work
257:
The area was a maze tightly packed streets and buildings in addition to the marketplace. The
Mercato Vecchio had numerous shrines and churches razed in the mid-18th century. On the piazzetta del Mercato were the churches of San Tommaso, and Santa Maria in Campidoglio. There was also the shrine of
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On top of the Arcone is an allegorical group of three women in plaster, representing Italy, Art and
Science. The Florentines instead nicknamed them after three famous prostitutes of the era, la Starnotti, la Cipischioni e la Trattienghi. Having deteriorated, the group was removed in 1904.
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was removed in 1932 and moved to the
Cascine. In the postwar period the name of the piazza was changed from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II to piazza della Repubblica. In 1956 the Colonna dell'Abbondanza was re-sited. The piazza is today a theatre of street-artists and impromptu exhibitions.
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In the early medieval period the forum area was densely inhabited. Before the closure of the fifth circle of city walls, chroniclers record that there was no longer a single garden or pasture in the city, and that urban crowding led to tenements with ever-rising floors, including
189:
complex on the south side and a religious building were found in the 19th-century demolition of the warren of medieval streets that had encroached upon the site. Via del
Campidoglio and Via delle Terme, for example, were named after the archaeological remains beneath them.
606:. It has been a hotel ever since its inception and its facade is marked by an eclectic style based on the renewal of classical motifs in Florentine architecture. The Palazzo was the model for other palaces on the square which were constructed a few decades afterwards.
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The present appearance of the square is the result of the city planning announced and carried out on the proclamation of
Florence as the capital of Italy (1865â71), with particularly intense activity in this Piazza between 1885 and 1895. In this period, known as the
441:", was designed by Micheli and was inspired by the most courtly Florentine Renaissance architecture, even if its additions to that style seem to be distant from the true ancient style. The pompous inscription that dominates the square was dictated, it seems, from
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The south side is made up of a single long building, containing the historical Caffè delle Giubbe Rosse. Entirely covered with photographs, drawings and memories of its famous patrons, the Caffè was the location for the brawl between the
Milanese Futurists of
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The area retained its function as a meeting place and market, which was institutionalised after 1000. As in other
Italian towns, Florence came to define public space intended for commerce, with its complementary spaces nearby, the piazza del
254:. The actual marketplace here was a long, low building in an oval rectilinear plan, with an overhanging roof to shelter the customers and the stalls placed on either side. Other shops and stalls were sited in the piazzetta.
422:. Following this transformation, the square became a kind of "lounge" for the town; since then refined palaces, luxury hotels, department stores and elegant cafes have sprung up around it, among which the known
668:. Its centrality in city life did not diminish, however, particularly in the first years of the twentieth century, when the cafes facing onto the piazza became a meeting-place for artists and men of letters.
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on or near this site, and that Mars was the city's patron god, which determined the city's warlike character. According to
Villani, in the Middle Ages a statue of Mars was placed on the predecessor to the
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The arcone and the portico
Gambrinus, where Cafe Gambrinus (an important meeting place in nineteenth and twentieth century Florence) and Cinema Gambrinus used to be located, were planned and realized by
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The palaces that rose in the new square, painted bitterly by the young Telemaco Signorini, followed the eclectic fashion of the time and had been planned by already well-known architects:
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250:, for political and civil affairs. The construction of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo near Ponte Vecchio in the 16th century led to the renaming of the market here to the
37:
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At the sides of the central arcone the porticos are looser in design, typical of the building of the period, connecting on one side to Palazzo delle Poste (1917).
364:
in Via dell'Oriuolo. A plentiful supply of works of art and architectural fragments fed the antiquarian market, and only some of them could be saved for the
291:(Column of Abundance, re-positioned in 1956) on a stepped base. Once considered to be the centre of the city, this column was erected at the crossing of the
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The decision to broaden the square allowed the total destruction of buildings of great importance: medieval towers, churches, the corporate seats of the
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In 1888, after the demolition of the hovels in the center of the Mercato, the old piazza del Mercato Vecchio reappeared, with the Loggia, the
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of the ancient Roman city. The present column dates to 1431, and is surmounted by a grey sandstone statue of Dovizia (or Abbondanza), by
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collected the city's Jews into a portion of this space. The ghetto contained both an Italian and a Spanish or Levantine synagogue.
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360:. The appearance of the square before the nineteenth-century demolitions is documented in prints, paintings and drawings in the
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Along this side runs a road roadway that to the north is a continuation of via Roma and to the south runs into via Calimala.
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The west side is delimited by the porticos that run north along via Brunelleschi and south along via Pellicceria.
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and the church of San Tommaso, but the shrewd restorers preferred to proceed with a more radical demolition yet.
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The town in fact underwent an enormous loss, minimally compensated for by the rescue of monuments like Vasari's
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On 20 September 1890, with the building-sites still open to rebuild the palazzoni in the square, the
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Today piazza della Repubblica houses three caffès: Caffè Gilli, Paszkowski and Caffè Giubbe Rosse.
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The east side is made up of two buildings, between which via degli Speziali runs into the piazza.
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A speculative reconstruction of the Forum and surrounding buildings (Museo di Firenze com'era)
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At its two ends, it meets via Calimala (to the east) and via Pellicceria (to the west).
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185:(now via degli Strozzi, via degli Speziali, and via del Corso). Foundations of a
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Photographs, paintings and drawings of the Mercato Vecchio are displayed in the
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These two lengths of portico are united by a large triumphal arch of I triumph (
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in the commemorative nineteenth-century terminology (or, by its detractors, the
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307:(found to be irreparably eroded in 1721. Today Foggini's original statue is in
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has long been a meeting place for famous artists and writers, notably those of
459:(The ancient centre of the city / restored from age-old squalor / to new life)
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The inauguration of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, 20 September 1890
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which did not please the Florentines, was mocked in a biting sonnet by
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The sole surviving witness to the old piazza del Mercato is the
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version (authorisation for use of this text on Knowledge (XXG)
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This page is a translation of its foreign language equivalents.
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Prato, and the procession with the fire, solemnly lit in the
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or ruining), large parts of the city centre were demolished.
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in via dell'Oriuolo, whilst on the column is a 1956 replica.
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depicted with melancholy this disappearing part of town.
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Santa Maria della Tromba, rebuilt in the north angle of
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Places of the Faith in the care of the Regione Toscana
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The building on the left is the Savoy Hotel, built by
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reported an oral tradition that there was a temple to
426:, where famous scholars and artists met and clashed.
584:and the Florentine artists centred on the magazine
246:for religious affairs and a piazza del Comune, now
437:The porticos with the triumphal arch, called the "
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403:. Today the sculpture is in a Piazzale of the
165:Piazza della Repubblica marks the site of the
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392:Equestrian Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II
106:. It was originally the site of the city's
770:from which another part of the text comes.
173:marks the intersection of the axes of the
210:Piazza del Mercato Vecchio and the Ghetto
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713:La grande guida delle strade di Firenze
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506:Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, circa 1896
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356:that was dismantled and reassembled in
629:) in the Palazzo delle Poste Centrali
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7:
715:, Newton Compton Editori, Roma 2003.
225:(Palazzo Vecchio, Sala di Gualdrada)
179:(now via Roma and via Calimala) and
31:Piazza della Repubblica in Florence
87:[ËpjattsadellareËpubblika]
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18:Piazza della Repubblica (Florence)
725:, Bonechi editore, Firenze 1998.
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768:Another page on the Comune site
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266:. The Jewish Ghetto imposed by
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518:Piazza della Repubblica, 2007
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340:Palazzo dell'Arcone di Piazza
476:Piazza del Mercato Vecchio,
449:L'ANTICO CENTRO DELLA CITTĂ
366:Museo nazionale di San Marco
260:Palazzo dell'Arte della Lana
723:Com'era Firenze 100 anni fa
666:church of the holy apostles
433:The inscription on the arch
303:, replacing an original by
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586:La Voce di Ardengo Soffici
219:Piazza del Mercato Vecchio
694:Museo di Firenze com'era
424:Caffè delle Giubbe Rosse
401:Emanuele a corpo sciolto
362:Museo di Firenze com'era
71:The piazza as seen from
455:A VITA NUOVA RESTITUITO
453:DA SECOLARE SQUALLORE
385:Colonna dell'Abbondanza
301:Giovan Battista Foggini
288:Colonna dell'Abbondanza
277:The Column of Abundance
171:Colonna dell'Abbondanza
79:Piazza della Repubblica
751:Comune di Firenze site
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53:43.77139°N 11.25389°E
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530:Vittorio Emanuele II
792:Piazzas in Florence
405:Parco delle Cascine
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721:Piero Bargellini,
711:Francesco Cesati,
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132:was also moved to
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73:Giotto's Campanile
58:43.77139; 11.25389
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650:Isidoro del Lungo
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358:Piazza dei Ciompi
223:Giovanni Stradano
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16:(Redirected from
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553:Caffè Gilli
545:Description
481: 1888
399:, entitled
374:Museo Horne
325:Risanamento
262:behind the
153:Roman forum
117:Risanamento
96:city square
56: /
575:South side
566:North side
232:case-torri
44:11°15â˛14âłE
41:43°46â˛17âłN
659:Festivals
623:cupoletta
613:West side
595:East side
582:Marinetti
537:The Cafès
338:The arch
305:Donatello
297:decumanus
182:decumanus
128:from the
786:Category
627:maiolica
268:Cosimo I
142:Futurism
100:Florence
730:Sources
187:thermae
148:History
94:) is a
638:Arcone
439:Arcone
112:ghetto
672:Notes
397:Vamba
293:cardo
244:Duomo
221:, by
176:cardo
167:forum
108:forum
104:Italy
759:here
755:GFDL
621:The
372:and
347:Arti
295:and
199:Mars
285:or
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98:in
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