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Events in Florence
FLORENCE: UFFIZI GALLERY & OLD BRIDGE
Cathedral Square (Duomo) | Piazza Signoria & Palazzo Vecchio | Michelangelo's David (Academy Gallery) | Palazzo Pitti | Uffizi Gallery & Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio) | Santa Croce | Events and Exhibitions in Florence | San Lorenzo District
The name “Uffizi” means “offices” - and that’s exactly why Cosimo I de' Medici in 1560 decided to build the Uffizi Palace. It had to house the administrative offices of the Government because the Palazzo Vecchio had become too small to hold them all.
The
construction was started by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 and
later completed
by Buontalenti, who designed the famous Tribune.
Francesco I de’ Medici was responsible for starting to turn the palace into a museum in 1581. The Medici were untiring collectors and were forever adding to the Gallery: some of the most important elements to be added to the collection came from the inheritance left by Ferdinando II's mother, Vittoria della Rovere (1631), and the Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici (1617-1675) bought the pieces which were to create the basis of the Gallery of Prints and Drawings on the first floor, and the collection of Self-portraits, exhibited today in the Vasari Corridor (that links the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace, passing over the Old Bridge).
When Gian Gastone, the last Medici Grand Duke, died, the collection was to be left entirely to the House of Habsburg-Lorraines, the Medici’s successors. But Gian Gastone’s sister Anna Maria Ludovica managed to prevent the artistic patrimony from being scattered with the famous "Family Pact" (1737). By this pact, The Lorraines agreed to leave the collections to the city of Florence itself "... to be an ornament to the Government, useful to the public and to attract the curiosity of foreigners ... ".
The
collection and the exhibition rooms were
altered several times over the centuries. Nowadays, the
exhibition rooms are composed of over 45 rooms containing about
1.700 paintings, 300 sculptures, 46 tapestries
and 14 pieces of furniture and/or ceramics. In actual fact
the Uffizi owns about 4.800 works, the remainder of which
are either in storage or on loan to other museums.
The Ponte Vecchio, or “Old Bridge”
is indeed the oldest bridge which crosses the Arno. It
dates back to Roman times and has often been re-built.
It got its typical structure in the sixteenth century,
when the Vasari Corridor was built above the numerous little
goldsmithery shops.
Photos © & courtesy of Florencephotos.com
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