As part of a trip to the Palazzo Vecchio, it is well worth paying the few extra Euros to see the excavations that lie beneath it, and which form a connection with Florence’s deepest, remotest past.
By Stephen Lock
The Palazzo Vecchio, rightly one of Florence’s most celebrated structures, has been many things in its long lifetime: the seat of the Signoria (the rulers of the Republic), a Medici palace, the seat of government for the newly-united Kingdom of Italy and, most recently, a museum and mayor’s office. However, that is just the history of the current building. The history of the site is far older, reaching back to medieval palaces, burial sites and, deep in the mists of time, a Roman theatre.
It is all too easy to forget Florence’s Roman past, so scant are the surface remains and so distracted are we by the allure of its Renaissance golden age. However, the excavations (scavi) under the Palazzo Vecchio help to redress this perception, enhancing our appreciation and admiration of the city’s heritage.
Approaching the Piazza della Signoria from the east up Via de’ Gondi, one perceives a subtle incline. This is a quiet echo of the tiered seating of the 2,000 year-old theatre several metres below, and the natural gradient of the land on which that too was, in turn, originally built. Heading into the Palazzo’s cavernous basement, ticket in hand, one can start to piece together this hidden history.
Do not expect a complete and pristine theatre to emerge from the gloom, or you’ll be sorely disappointed. The actual floorplan of the theatre was huge, stretching far beyond the site of Palazzo Vecchio itself. What has been exposed is just a slice, whose architectural elements have long since been removed, and whose shape is clouded by the tangled remains of later developments. But this site is interesting precisely because of the chaotic history it relates.
Right at the bottom of the deep excavation pits are Roman stone slabs, the base of the theatre itself. Piled on top of these are walls and arches and a sloping layer of rough stones, which would have formed the theatre’s substructure of access corridors (or vomitoria), and which would have supported the semicircular stalls.
Complicating the picture are all the medieval remains resting on top, including the Palazzo Vecchio’s own massive foundations – huge pillars which plunge right down to the Roman bedrock. This layer records an era when the theatre, long disused, was pillaged for its building materials, and the site was recycled for new purposes. Instead of dramatic plays, there would have been burials, joined up by streets and buildings, faint traces of which are still visible.
While there is plenty to see, these rooms are guaranteed to create more questions than they can answer – archaeological sites like this always do. The layers are, in practice, challenging to distinguish from one another. Only a little information is provided, and applying the dependable logic of “things that are higher up must be more recent” still offers only a limited insight.
However, all told this is a rare opportunity to stare across 2,000 years of Florence’s history in one space, and as such is one worth seizing. The rich archaeology of this single site opens a new perspective on the whole city, as one wonders what great ruins lie hidden elsewhere in the foundations of buildings all over Florence.
Treasures of Florence 