Davantsati Palace
The Davanzati Palace is a building demonstrating the transition from austere tower-type houses to elegant Renaissance-style buildings. Italians advise you to definitely visit the palazzo, which clearly demonstrates how people lived more than 500 years ago. Surprisingly, almost all the exhibits have been preserved intact. To get to the attraction, you need to come to Krasny Vorota Street, 9 in Florence.
The history of the Davanzati Palace
The building was built in the middle of the 14th century. Its first owners were the Davizzi family. At that time, the first floor was occupied by handicraft workshops for the production of woolen fabric. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Bartolini acquired the building, and towards the end of the 16th century it passed to Davanzati. At that time, the palace was decorated with the family coat of arms, which has been preserved to this day, and a charming terrace that allows you to view the city from above. And in the atrium, the owners of the house made deals and conducted business negotiations.
300 years later, the last representative of the family voluntarily passed away, and the building was bought by a local antique dealer, who restored the palace and opened a private museum in it with the right to sell exhibits. Thanks to this, the collection of the Davanzati Palace was periodically changed, attracting visitors who are lovers of antiques.
In the middle of the twentieth century, Palazzo Davanzati was bought by the state, having equipped the Museum of the Florentine house in the old mansion. The museum existed for almost 50 years, and then closed for a 10-year restoration.
What can I see
The Davanzati Palace is fully operational, but if you can explore the first two floors yourself, then the subsequent ones are visited only with a guide. The number of seats on such excursions is limited. By the way, the floors in the building are counted from the second, the first in Italy was traditionally considered the ground floor or basement.
On the ground floor there is an exhibition telling about the history of the construction of the Davanzati Palace. From here you can also access the enclosed courtyard, decorated with 14th-century capitals and arches. An ancient well is also noteworthy, equipped with devices for supplying water to the upper floors, where the kitchen and living quarters were located. From the courtyard, the landmark opens from a completely different side, thanks to open staircases, galleries and passages connecting all floors.
The first floor of the Davanzati Palace displays authentic 16th-century objects, including a huge fireplace, equipped to heat the house using a complex duct system. There was a bedroom with lovely wall paintings and the Davanzati coat of arms, a bathroom, an office, and a dining room, better known as the "parrot room." The room got such an unusual name thanks to frescoes that once imitated draperies with these exotic birds.
The second floor somewhat duplicates the rooms of the lower tier, only instead of the dining room there was a living room. The last floor is equipped with a kitchen (this was done for fire safety purposes), a churn and a room with open windows. In ancient times, the usual window glass here was replaced with a fabric impregnated with special compounds from moisture and winds.
