Palazzi Gianfigliazzi: Historic Palaces on Florence’s Lungarno Corsini
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Republic of Florence
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page10 sections
History
Palazzi Gianfigliazzi are two adjoining historic palaces in Florence, Italy, standing at numbers 2 and 4 on Lungarno Corsini. Their history begins in the medieval period, when the Gianfigliazzi family held extensive property in this part of the city. Although the buildings were once connected internally, they later developed separate ownership and architectural histories.
Medieval Gianfigliazzi holdings
According to family tradition, the Gianfigliazzi name derived from an ancestor called Johannes Filius Acci. From the twelfth century, the family owned numerous buildings around Lungarno Corsini and along Via de’ Tornabuoni. Their properties included the Gianfigliazzi Tower, which survives, and a private loggia at the corner of Via de’ Tornabuoni and Via del Parione. That loggia was closed in 1732.
The palace at number 2 was built for the Ruggerini family in the thirteenth century. It later passed to the Fastelli or Petribuoni before entering Gianfigliazzi ownership at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The building was refurbished in the seventeenth century by Gherardo Silvani. When the Gianfigliazzi family became extinct in 1764, the property passed to the Fontebuoni and was later divided among the Masetti, Piccioli, and Campodonico families.
The adjoining palace at number 4 also belonged to the Gianfigliazzi holdings. The family continued to live there until its extinction at the end of the eighteenth century, after which the building entered a succession of aristocratic and commercial phases.
Aristocratic residences and cultural associations
Around the middle of the eighteenth century, the number 2 palace was rented by Luisa of Albany, Princess of Stolberg, a European aristocrat and cultural patron. She lived there with Vittorio Alfieri, the Italian poet and dramatist, from November 1792. After Alfieri died in Florence in 1803, Luisa commissioned Antonio Canova, a leading Italian Neoclassical sculptor, to create a monument to him. The monument stands in the Basilica of Santa Croce. Luisa died in 1824 and left her estate to the painter François-Xavier Fabre.
In 1825, Luigi Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger brother and the former king of the Netherlands, bought the palace at number 4. The building was later converted into the Delle Quattro Nazioni hotel. Alessandro Manzoni, a major nineteenth-century Italian novelist and poet, stayed there for one month in 1827 while revising his writing in Florentine Italian. A plaque on the facade commemorates his residence.
Nineteenth-century transformations
In 1853, the number 2 palace passed to the Masetti family, who enlarged the building. It later became the property of a real-estate company and now accommodates the Palazzo Alfieri Residenza d’Epoca hotel.
The number 4 palace later belonged to the Lamporecchi family, who sold it to the Belgian Van der Linden d’Hooghvorst, the husband of the Florentine Aurora Guadagni. After Florence ceased to be the capital, the palace was sold to the Cesaroni Venanzi family. It is now owned by the Campodonico family.
During the period when Florence was the capital, the number 4 palace hosted elaborate balls attended by wealthy Italians and foreign visitors. Its interiors were valued for their furnishings, draperies, and household objects. A vivid account of this lavish hospitality comes from a carnival event in 1870, when a table collapsed under the weight of tableware, glassware, and bronze candelabra. Other tables were prepared within an hour with similarly elaborate furnishings.
Remains
Palazzi Gianfigliazzi consists of two adjacent palace buildings on Lungarno Corsini, at numbers 2 and 4. They were formerly joined internally, but their later alterations produced distinct architectural forms. The surviving features include changes to the facades, a stone bench associated with commerce, a commemorative plaque, and interiors reshaped for aristocratic receptions and hotel use.
Palace at number 2
Facade and street bench
The number 2 palace retains the form produced by its nineteenth-century enlargement. In 1853, an additional floor was added and the arrangement of the facade windows was altered. A later stone bench was built along the facade. Known as the Pancone dei Ragusei, this bench was used by Dalmatian merchants from Ragusa to display their goods.
Palace at number 4
Facade and upper loggia
In 1841, Bartolommeo Silvestri restored the number 4 palace and regularized the arrangement of its facade windows. He also closed the panoramic loggia on the top floor, changing the building’s external form.
Interiors and commemorative plaque
Silvestri’s work also altered the interior, including the refurbishment of salons used for balls and receptions. The facade bears a plaque commemorating Alessandro Manzoni’s residence in the palace in 1827, linking the surviving building with its nineteenth-century literary history.
