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This square is the original epicentre of the city. The most appealing thing about the Piazza della Signoria is the array of sculptures, collected outside the Palazzo Vecchio. The Palazzo Vecchio was the town hall and was built in 1298. The collection is placed along the left hand side of the builing and includes Giambologna's equestrian statue of Cosimo I and Ammannati's Neptune Fountain, copies of Donatello's Marzocco (the city's heraldic lion), his Judith and Holofernes and Michelangelo's not to be missed David standing inconspicuously outside the Palazzo Vecchio in a cage. The square is also where Savonarola held his infamous Bonfire of the Vanities and curiously enough is the same spot where later his was burned as a heretic, near Ammannati's fountain and you can find a small plaque set into the pavement in front of Neptune to marks the location. The square's defining point, the Loggia della Signoria, was built in the late fourteenth century as an open dais for addressing crowds by city officials during ceremonies. There are a number of sculptures in the loggia among which Giovanni Bologna's Rape of the Sabine Women. In the corner nearest the Palazzo Vecchio you will find the figure that has become one of the iconic images of the Renaissance, Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus. At the end of the square at the south end of the Palazzo Vecchio and reaching as far as the river Arno is the Palazzo dei Uffizi, houses the most important collection of Renaissance art and considered by some to be on e of the world's greatest art collections. It is certainly a more than adequate chronological representation of Italian art through the ages and a complete account of Florentine art with extensive coverage of Botticelli among which you will find the Birth of Venus. |