PALAZZO PITTI
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The Pitti Palace, the most monumental building in Florence with its 205 meter façade, is called the Florentine Versailles.
The Pitti Palace, the most monumental building in Florence, with its 205-meter façade, has been called the Florentine Versailles. It was the residence of the Tuscan grand dukes and the royal family during the time when Florence was the capital of Italy. Created and completed over a period of five centuries, this palace was initially designed by Brunelleschi around 1440 for the merchant Luca Pitti. Long before Versailles!
Legend has it that he was asked to design windows as large as the doors of the rival Medici residence and to create an inner courtyard that would contain the entire palace on Via Larga. The structure designed by Brunelleschi reflects his model of a Renaissance palace: a cube whose height would be equal to its depth, made of stone taken from the quarries on the Boboli hill. But Brunelleschi died before the work began, in 1457. Luca Pitti, too, did not see the realization of his sumptuous residence. He died in 1472, distressed by the financial collapse and weakened by the rivalry with the Medici who bought the palace in 1550 and asked Bartolomeo Ammannati to enlarge it and create the imposing courtyard.
The piazza Pitti is used by many people who come to recover after visiting the five museums of the palace. The Boboli garden can be disappointing despite the exceptional setting it enjoys. Poorly maintained for some, Italians defend it by praising its wildness. It is perhaps better to walk in the nearby Bardini garden...
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