Palazzo dell’Arte della Lana

The best preserved of all of Florence's guildhalls and a relic from Dante’s time, the Palazzo dell’Arte della Lana (1308) was headquarters of the wool workers guild, the richest and most powerful of the seven Arti Maggiori. In its heyday, 30,000 Florentines worked in over 200 wool workshops; indirectly the industry is said to have employed a third of the city's population.

The tower-house of the Compiobbesi, a powerful Ghibelline family, was expropriated by the guild, its swallowtail crenellations chopped into Guelph squares; the Palazzo itself was added in 1308. Inside are 14th-century frescoes by Lippo di Benivieni and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

In 1569 an overhead corridor was added by Bernardo Buontalenti, linking the guildhall directly to Orsanmichele.

Società Dantesca Italiana