Piazza della Signoria — square
Image by JobiWan from Pixabay

Piazza della Signoria

  • 2 min read
  • 43.770° N 11.256° E

Interesting facts

  • Michelangelo's original David stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio from 1504 until 1873, when it was moved indoors to the Accademia gallery.
  • Excavations in the 1980s uncovered a Roman theatre, baths, a textile-dyeing workshop and a huge 5th-century basilica, and even traces of a Neolithic settlement.
  • After the Ghibelline houses were demolished in 1268, the square stayed rough and potholed until it was paved for the first time in 1385.
  • The merchants' court on the square, built in 1359, commissioned painted Virtues from Piero del Pollaiuolo and the young Botticelli, now in the Uffizi.
  • One of the Medici lions in the Loggia dei Lanzi is a reworked 2nd-century Roman sculpture; its partner was carved by Flaminio Vacca in 1598.
  • Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus of 1533 stands beside the David copy at the palace door, to the right of the entrance.
  • The Palazzo Vecchio has had many names, including Palazzo del Popolo, dei Priori and Ducale; it became the Old Palace when the Medici moved to the Pitti.
  • The Marzocco, the heraldic lion holding the Florentine lily, is a copy; Donatello's original is now in the Bargello museum.
  • The neo-Renaissance Assicurazioni Generali palace of 1871 is one of very few purpose-built commercial buildings in central Florence and houses the historic Caffè Rivoire.
  • The facade of the Palazzo Uguccioni, begun in 1550, is sometimes attributed to Raphael, although he had died thirty years earlier.

Why it is worth it

For more than seven centuries the Piazza della Signoria has been the political stage of Florence, and it still looks the part. The square took shape from 1268, when the victorious Guelphs razed the houses of their Ghibelline enemies and deliberately left the ground empty, which explains its irregular, angled outline: it is a space made by demolition rather than design. Excavations in the 1980s found older layers beneath the paving, including remains of Roman buildings from the colony of Florentia.

The square is ruled by the Palazzo Vecchio, the massive, crenellated Romanesque fortress-palace that served as the town hall and seat of government. Beside it opens the Loggia dei Lanzi, a set of wide arches on Corinthian capitals that has become one of the finest open-air sculpture galleries anywhere. Under its vaults stand Benvenuto Cellini's bronze Perseus holding up the head of Medusa, finished in 1554, and Giambologna's Abduction of a Sabine Woman of 1583, a spiralling marble group meant to be walked around, with no single front. The Medici lions guard the steps.

Out in the square the statues read like a manifesto of Florentine power. A copy of Michelangelo's David stands at the door of the Palazzo Vecchio, where the original was set up, alongside Donatello's Judith and Holofernes. Bartolomeo Ammannati's Fountain of Neptune, completed in 1575, raises its marble sea god above the square, and Giambologna's equestrian Cosimo I, of 1594, rides nearby. Round the corner the long arms of the Uffizi reach towards the Arno.

The paving has seen history as well as art. In 1497 the friar Girolamo Savonarola held his Bonfire of the Vanities here, burning mirrors, books and paintings; on 23 May 1498 he was himself executed on the same spot, now marked by a round plaque set into the ground near the fountain. Today the square is pedestrianised, and the best way to take it in is slowly, at different hours, as the light moves across the stone of the palazzo.

Getting there

The square lies in the historic centre of Florence, the Renaissance city on the Arno and capital of Tuscany. Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR) is about 6 km away. The square is closed to traffic and is best reached on foot through the old centre.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Florence 18The Most Beautiful Places in Tuscany 37The Most Beautiful Places in Italy 279The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments in Tuscany 5The Most Beautiful Squares in Italy 6The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments in Italy 22The Most Beautiful Squares 25The Most Beautiful Squares, Streets and Monuments 173

From the encyclopaedia

Piazza della Signoria is a W-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Central Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo, and gateway to the Uffizi Gallery.

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