Palazzo Vecchio

When Goethe made his blitz-tour of Florence, the Palazzo Vecchio (also called the Palazzo della Signoria) helped pull the wool over his eyes. ‘Obviously’, wrote the great poet, ‘the people . . . enjoyed a lucky succession of good governments’ – a remark which, as Mary McCarthy wrote, could make the angels in heaven weep.

But none of Florence’s chronic factionalism mars Arnolfo di Cambio’s temple of civic aspirations, part council hall and part fortress and still Florence's city hall. In many ways, the Palazzo Vecchio is the ideal of stone Florence: rugged and imposing, with a rusticated façade that was to inspire so many of the city’s private palaces, yet designed according to the proportions of the Golden Section of the ancient Greeks. Its dominant feature, the 308ft tower, is a typical piece of Florentine bravado, for long the highest point in the city.

History