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| Palazzo della Signoria, or Palazzo Vecchio, as it appears today, is the result of at least three successive building stages between the 13th-16th centuries: the actual construction of Arnolfo's palace, overlooking the square and placed next to the Loggia dei Lanzi; the first alterations in Republican times, and the later restructuration carried out by Vasari, after the coming to power of Cosimo I de' Medici, who moved into the palace with all his family. Palazzo Vecchio's exclusive role as the political representative of the city gradually lost importance from 1565 for three centuries, being partly replaced by the Uffizi and the new Palace at Pitti, though it came to the fore again at the end of this last century: after the Lorraine family had been expelled from the city in 1848, it became the seat of United Italy's provisional government from 1865-71, when Florence was the capital of the kingdom of Italy, and housed the Chamber of Deputies (the Senate sat next door in the Uffizi, linked up by an overhead passageway above Via della Ninna). It was to return to its original function as the seat of the City Council in 1872. Although the palace today contains the offices of the City Council, much of it can still be visited. The public can admire the Hall of the Five Hundred, the little Study of Francesco I and the four monumental apartments: the Quarters of the Elements, the Quarters of Eleonora of Toledo, the Residence of the Priors and the Quarters of Leo X, where the reception rooms of the mayor and the council that governs the city are situated today. The Hall of the Two Hundred is once more being used for the meetings of the City Council and therefore not always open to the public. | |
Between 1540 and 1565, when the Medici family was about to move to the Pitti Palace, the Palace was more than doubled by the addition of a new block onto the rear, leaving the part that faced onto the square intact. This led to the creation of the Quarter of the Elements on the second floor, with the splendid Loggiato of Saturn and its wonderful view, and the Quarters of Eleonora di Toledo, wife of the Grand Duke, restructured and frescoed between 1559 and 1562. The passageway that links it to the Uffizi starts out from here, from the Green Room. Lastly the Quarters of Leo X (on the first floor), decorated with portraits of the most famous members of the Medici family, were remodernized by Vasari in 1555-62 on the already modified structures by Giovan Battista di Marco di Tasso, director of the work on the "Ducal Palace" (as it was then called) between 1550-55 and designer of the doorway onto Via dei Leoni.
