Florence, Italy

Florence
Registered Sector: 
Historic Centre of Florence
Location and site: 
Situated in Tuscany in central Italy, Florence is at the foot of the Appenine Mountains and among the hills of the Arno River basin. The city was established on the Via Flaminia, one of the Roman roads that crossed Etruria, at the point where this road crossed the river.
Historical Function: 
Trade and art (desire to create a national Italian art).
Administrative Status: 
Chief city of the province of Florence.
Historical Reference: 
  • In 200 B.C., the small Etruscan town established on the site known today as Florence, was colonised by the Romans.
  • The era of the First Crusade (11th century) was marked by religious fervour and the opening of a trade route to the east.
  • In Florence, the 12th century was prosperous. It was an era of powerful trade corporations, of Florentine cloth export, and of important bankers. The following century witnessed the introduction of the florin, the first and best gold municipal monetary unit of the Middle Ages.
  • The Republic of Florence was instituted in 1282. In 1300, following major demographic expansion, the city possessed 100,000 inhabitants.
  • From 1434 until 1737, the history of Florence was linked to the Medici; this period represented the peak of the Renaissance.
Urban Morphology: 
Florence has preserved the elements of its Roman colonial layout. With the development of the network of roads and the respect of the pedestrian tracks of the Middle Ages, large public buildings, such as the Cathedral of Santa Maria di Fiore (1296), which has several doors located on axis with surrounding streets, blend with the city plan. In the Quattrecento, within the perimeter defined by the 1333 fortification, Renaissance perspectives were superimposed on the medieval layout.

Florence is the work of Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and his followers. The city brings together, particularly in the vicinity of the Ponte Vecchio, some of the world's greatest Renaissance masterpieces. These monuments, which form a point of departure for an urban and artistic landscape, are within view of each other and are linked to their environment: the square, the city and the Tuscan countryside.

Registration Criteria: 
Ferrara is an exceptional example of a Renaissance city which has preserved its urban fabric virtually intact. The evolution of urban design as manifested in Ferrara had a profound influence on the future of this discipline over the course of subsequent centuries. During the two prolific centuries of the Renaissance, the brilliant court of the Este family attracted a myriad of artists, poets and philosophers of great renown, including the new humanists of the Italian Renaissance. (II), (IV) and (VI)