Vasari Corridor

The Vasari Corridor is not the most popular tourist destination in Italy, this is due to the difficulty of visiting and the rather high price that you have to pay for visiting the attraction. Despite this, year after year the covered gallery connecting the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti attracts the attention of people from all over the world. This place houses about 700 paintings of the 16th-17th centuries by Roman and Neapolitan masters, a unique collection of self-portraits of famous and great artists of Italy and the world up to the beginning of the 20th century. In total, the collection contains approximately 1,400 paintings

History of creation

The Vasari corridor looks unusual; it connects the old and new houses of the famous Medici family. The history of the creation of the covered gallery began in the 16th century. At this time, the Duke of Tuscany decided to give his residence, which he shared with the government, to the government itself, moving to the house opposite. To reduce the time it takes to move family members and parliament and make their movement as secret as possible, Casimo I ordered the construction of a special passage. But unlike traditional secret passages, this one was supposed to connect two buildings above the heads of passers-by. The gallery partially extends into the Temple of Santa Felicita. Thus, the ruler could attend services without embarrassing parishioners or clergy with his appearance.

The construction of the Vasari Corridor lasted only 5.5 months; the creator of the unusual transition was Giorgio Vasari, who had previously earned fame as the builder of several Florentine palaces. Several subsequent restorations made almost no changes to the appearance of the ancient gallery. From ancient times, small round windows with preserved bars remain, but panoramic windows above the bridge were installed already during the time of Mussolini. Currently, the "air bridge" refers to the Uffizi Gallery.

Brief description

The length of the Vasari Corridor is 750 meters. The indoor gallery begins in Hall 500. This room was once a barracks that could accommodate approximately 500 city residents with some comfort. Later the room was converted into a reception hall. The further territory belongs to the Uffizi Gallery, and this is where the first exhibits are located.

Then the Vasari Corridor goes around the gallery itself, heads towards the Pitti Palace, passes through buildings and ends in the park. By the way, ancient gardens are also considered the property of the republic. The beautiful park comfortably houses sculptural compositions, fountains with lakes, and artificial caves, the most famous of which is the Grotto of Venus. The history of the emergence of an art gallery inside the Vasari Corridor is interesting. There is a legend that one day the Tuscan ruler found himself in the house of a very popular doctor. The walls in the house were covered with self-portraits of the most famous artists of the time. Cosimo offered the owner of a unique collection of paintings a fairly large reward for transferring the collection to him, and when the doctor refused this offer, he ordered copies to be made. When the doctor died, some of the paintings were transported to the palace. Unfortunately, by that time several paintings had disappeared irretrievably.

Having learned about the unusual collection, many masters of brushes and paints began to send their creations to the Duke. This tradition continues today, and the placement of a self-portrait in a gallery indicates recognition of the artist’s merits. The collection also includes paintings by artists of more recent times. In total, the passage contains about 1,400 works of art. True, some of them were badly damaged by the explosion of 1993 and are still waiting in line for restoration.