Address: Piazza Pitti
The Pitti Palace was begun during the second half of the
fifteenth century by Luca Pitti, but was unfinished at his death
in 1472. Tradition says that the palace was designed by Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and built by his pupil Luca
Fancelli. The original construction on two floors above a ground
floor with only five windows on each floor, was bought in 1550 by
Cosimo I de' Medici's wife, Eleonora of Toledo and became the
official residence of the grand ducal family. The palace was then
enlarged and altered; from 1560 date the grandiose courtyard and
the two lateral wings, designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati
(1511-1592) and the complete rearrangement of the gardens. Under
Cosimo II de' Medici (died 1621) the opening up of the view was
begun together with the layout of the piazza, carried out to the designs of Giulio and
Alfonso Parigi.
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The facade then assumed its present appearance,
with the exception of the two projecting pavilions, built under
the House of Lorraine and completed only in the first half of the
nineteenth century by G.M. Paoletti and P. Poccianti, also the
architect of the Meridiana pavilion at the rear of the palace.
Most of the internal decoration of the Pitti was executed during
the seventeenth century by Giovanni da San Giovanni, Pietro da
Cortona, il Volterrano and Anton Domenico Gabbiani, with the
important subsequent work of Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734). As
regards the domestic life of the palace, we know that it housed
many members of the family. The rooms on the left of the facade
were reserved for the Grand Duke, those on the right for the heir
and the lateral wings on the first floor for their respective
wives. The front rooms on the second floor contained the large
palace library, while at the sides lived the children. The ground
floor to the left contained the summer apartment of the Grand
Duke, there was a mezzanine reserved for his private use.
Today, the palace and the Boboli gardens behind it contain some
of the most important Florentine museums. On the first floor is
the Palatine Gallery, on the
ground floor and mezzanine the Silver
Museum ("degli Argenti") and the Gallery of Modern Art is on the
top floor. In the separate Palazzina del Cavaliere on the upper
slopes of the Boboli gardens is the Porcelain
Museum, while in the Palazzina of the Meridiana the Costume Gallery can be found.
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