FLORENCE history and highlights

The origin of the city of Florence is very ancient. First foundation goes back to the 8th century BC, when a flourishing and enlightened Etruscan civilization is formed on the bank of the Arno. Then the roman colony of Florentia was founded during the 1st century BC over the earlier Etruscan settlement, and preserved till the Middle Age the ancient urban plane, made up of squared-off and uniform lines and a rectangular plane. Florence becomes a free commune in 1115, and due to its growing importance the city walls will be extended three times to include the Oltrarno area.

After the first churches and the Baptistery (faced in polycrome marble according the dictates of the Romanesque style), a large number of tower-houses were built, symbols of the power of the florentine families such as the Medici family, under the long supremacy of which the city continued flourishing in many fields.
In architecture, we see jewels of incomparable beauty (13th-16th century): Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo, the Bargello, the Campanile of Giotto were built following the Gothic style as well as numerous palaces. The churches of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella. Monuments are inspired by classical art, geometric laws and perspective. Brunelleschi's genius created the magnificent Cupola (dome) of the Duomo, Santo Spirito, San Lorenzo, the Pazzi Chapel. Florence was the capital af Renaissance, rich in artworks. The 16th-17th century was the period of the Mannerism, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and later, of the baroque style.

Many great artists lived in Florence whose genius can be found in literature, architecture, sculpture and painting: Cimabue (1240-1302), Dante (1265-1321), Giotto (1266-1337), Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Donatello (1386-1466), Masaccio (1401-1428), Botticelli (1445-1510), Vasari, Leonardo (1452-1519), Michelangelo (1475-1564) and many others ...

Jul	AUG	Sep
	03
2003	2004	2005

Bargello	Church of Santa Maria Novella	Church of Santa Croce	Church of Ognissanti
The Palace houses the National Museum. Public building of the the Middle Age, it was built as a rectangular fortress. First headquarters of the Captain of the People, it housed during the centuries many public offices till the Captain of Justice known as Bargello.	The dominican complex is a masterpiece of the Gothic and Renaissance styles. Begun in 1246, it was completed in 1360 by Jacopo Talenti with the construction of the campanile and the sacresty. The facade, was completed later in 1470 by Leon Battista Alberti who extended the original Romanesque/Gothic design with Renaissance elements.	The monumental gothic church by Arnolfo di Cambio. Inside, the works of Giotto and Donatello, and the sepulcral monuments to Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli. In the closter of the convent stands the Pazzi Chapel, designed by Brunelleschi and masterpiece of Florentine Renaissance.	The ancient church was completly rebuilt in the 17th together with the Cloister and the facade and of the early church only the medieval Campanile in romanesque style remains which follows the model of that of S. Maria Novella. In the refectory of the convent there is the splendid fresco Ghirlandaio, the Last Supper.