[Florence] Palazzo Vecchio
The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke’s residence was moved across the Arno River to the Palazzo Pitti.
In 1299, the commune and people of Florence decided to build a palace that would be worthy of the city’s importance, and that would be more secure and defensible in times of turbulence for the magistrates of the commune.
The building is crowned with projecting crenellated battlements, supported by small arches and corbels. Under the arches are a repeated series of nine painted coats of arms of the Florentine republic. Some of these arches can be used as embrasures (spiombati) for dropping heated liquids or rocks on invaders.
The solid, massive building is enhanced by the simple tower with its clock. Giovanni Villani wrote that Arnolfo di Cambio incorporated the ancient tower of the Foraboschi family (the tower then known as “La Vacca” or “The Cow”) into the new tower’s facade as its substructure
his tower contains two small cells, that, at different times, imprisoned Cosimo de’ Medici (the Elder) (1435) and Girolamo Savonarola (1498).
When Cosimo later removed to Palazzo Pitti, he officially renamed his former palace the Palazzo Vecchio, the “Old Palace”, although the adjacent town square, the Piazza della Signoria, still bears the original name. Cosimo commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build an above-ground walkway, the [Vasari corridor](%5BFlorence%5D%20Ponte%20Vecchio/Vasari%20Corridor%20(the%20secret%20passageway%20of%20the%20Medi%20eac32382212a41a88805128b5bd9e84b.md), from the Palazzo Vecchio, through the Uffizi, over the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti. Cosimo I also moved the seat of government to the Uffizi.
[Vasari Corridor (the secret passageway of the Medici)](%5BFlorence%5D%20Ponte%20Vecchio/Vasari%20Corridor%20(the%20secret%20passageway%20of%20the%20Medi%20eac32382212a41a88805128b5bd9e84b.md)