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1. FLORENTIA
2. FROM A BAD PERIOD TO A SLOW REBIRTH
3. FLORENCE AS A FREE CITY
4. FLORENCE DURING MEDICI DYNASTY
5. FROM ASBURGO- LORENA DYNASTY TO PRESENT FLORENCE

If there are no remarkable traces of monuments of ancient pagan roman Florence left (with certain exceptions), there is something more of the Christian roman Florence left (IV and V century). In spite of following modifications the Church of S.Lorenzo is just of this period (393). The Church of Santa Felicita and the one of Santa Reparata (built at the beginning of the V century in honour of the Saint killed by the persecutions of Decio) are instaed a little following.

2. FROM A BAD PERIOD TO A SLOW REBIRTH

During the Greek-Gothic war (535-553) Florence paid for its geographic importance: during this war both the factions competed for the city and it underwent so the passage of violent armies, which prevented the commerces, a steady agriculture and decimated the population.
The situation got worse with Longobards’ discent. They never managed to unify the North and the South of the peninsula, which was split by the Byzantine domination, which went down diagonally from Ravenna to Rome. Florence paid for this unsuccessful unification with its strategic preemency, which was given to Lucca instead.
In spite of this period of decline Florentines built in the VIII century the Church of San Giovanni (whose foundations lie under the present Baptistery).

From the Carolingian Age (VIII century) there was a slow renewal, which led to the construction of larger walls, which followed the roman walls. This meant that the population had begun again to increase.
In the X century Marquis Ugo of Tuscany’s mother (Countess Willa) got the Florentine Abbey built in memory of her husband. It was then enlarged by Ugo himself. From this period Florence began to reacquire its central role in Tuscany.

This role became even clearer during the reform of the Church in the XI century (in which Florence took part actively by giving hospitality to a coucil in 1055) and subsequently during the struggle for the investitures between Pope Gregorio VII and Emperor Enrico IV, a struggle arbitrated by Countess Matilde of Canossa. Matilde opposed more than once the emperor’s military undertakings and Florence managed to repel the siege by the imperial armies in 1082.
Thank to this religious and political renewal the city augmented its religious buildings, began the construction of San Minato al Monte (1018), of the monastery San Pier Maggiore (1067), of the church San Pietro Scheraggio (1068), of the Spedale San Giovanni and of the Spedale of the Badia Fiorentina; and about this period also the Mercato Nuovo is documented.

3. FLORENCE AS A FREE CITY

The struggle of Canossa left its heritage for long time in the history of Florence. Already in the XII century actually Florence claimed its autonomy from the emperor and threw the basis of its future as a Guelphic city. After Matilde’s death (1115) Florence began a rivalry, which lasted until the foundation of the Great Dukedom of Tuscany, with neighbouring powerful cities like Siena, Pisa and Lucca, which differently from Florence sided with the Ghibelline faction.
The renewed importance of Florence led to an enlargement of its walls in the last thirty years of the XII century and to a beginning of a swift conquest of its countryside, to the detriment of those feudal noblemen, who dominated the Florentine countryside. This struggle between city ad country side reflected a struggle which began to stand out into the walls: the struggle between the ancient feudal nobility and the new middle class of enterpreneurs, which founded its profits on commerces.

The tensions between the ancient aristocracy and the new one went as far as to be at laggerheads: the episode which is supposed to be the beginning of this struggle, which took form as a struggle between Guelphs (the middle class favourable to the Pope) and Ghibellines (the feudatories favourable to the Emperor), is Buondelmonte Buondelmonti’s killing in the neighbourhood of the present Ponte Vecchio on the day of Easter in 1216.
The struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines ended with the victory of the former faction (in the history of Florence there were also Ghibellines victories, for example after the battle of Montaperti, but never definitive), which settled a political supremacy of the socalled Fat People (the middle class of the Major Guilds) towards the Magnates (ancient nobles) and the Small People (the middle class of the Minor Guilds). This supremacy was asserted above all by the "Justice Regulations" (1293).

This political supremacy of the new middle-class aristocracy began tho show its effects also in the urbanistic field: the tower-homes of the ancient aristocracy had served once as defence from other family clans, but now with the new government they were reduced at most 50 arms (29 metres). Besides weakening Magnates’ urbanistic presence the Fat People meant to stregthen theirs, so thei built:

- religious buildings (Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Santissima Annunziata, Ognissanti, Santa Maria del Carmine and above all the reconstruction of Santa Reparata’s Cathedral, which became Santa Maria del Fiore (the Cathedral));

- three bridges (to the Carraia, 1218; Rubaconte (the present Alle Grazie), 1237; S.Trinità,1252) besides that which was called Ponte Vecchio since 1220 and the respective riverside;

- public palaces: Palazzo dei Podestà (the present Bargello, 1255) and Palazzo dei Priori (the present Palazzo Vecchio, 1299);

- from 1284 to 1333 a new and larger surrounding wall, which annexed also the part of the city extended on the left side of Arno (this wall was demolished in the XIX century, but numerous Gates still last).

The end of the XIII century marked the beginning of a new variant in the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines: inside Guelphs two different groups formed, the Blacks and the Whites, respectively siding with family Cerchi and family Donati. The split between the two factions separated on one side them who wanted a Florence independent from Pope’s aims and who were not interested in expansionism in Tuscany (the Whites, the lower middle class) and on the other side them who were interested in expansionistic policy and so ready to an alliance with pope Bonifacio VIII (the Blacks, the upper middle class). The struggle ended with Blacks’ victory and Whites’ expulsion (among them there was Dante).

The XIV century didn’t begin in the best way. After Whites’ expulsion (so a considerable part of the population had to go into exile), in 1304 a fire destroyed more than a thousand of houses (a lot of them were built with wood). As if this wasn’t enough Pisa and Lucca, the ancient enemies of Florence, entered the field with two able leaders: Ugaccione della Faggiola and Castruccio Castracani, thanks to whom the two cities inflicted hard defeats on Florence. Only after the death of these able leaders and thanks to a failed co-ordination between the two cities, Florence managed to reconquer its hegemonic position in Tuscany (not only in comparison with Pisa and Lucca, but also in comparison with Arezzo, Pistoia and Siena).
Also the ascent of Small People contributed to this general crisis; it actually began to claim its political rights towards the Fat People: at first this lower middle class was represented by foreign podestas of plebeian origin (like the duke of Athens Gualtieri di Brienne), then it claimed political rights for the Minor Guilds and finally there was the revolt of the wage earners, the Ciompi’s riot dtiven by Michele di Lando (1378).

But the political crisis was not the only scourge which hit Florence in the XIV century; like in other European countries the Black Plague fell also on Florence (1348) and it decimated the population so much that the social and political system was upset.     

4. FLORENCE DURING MEDICI DYNASTY

After a century of riots the social revolt had a collapse and some powerful families took advantage of the situation; these families actually managed to unify the chaotic political tensions in Florence at the end of the XIV century. At first this duty was led by family Albizzi, which managed to to govern as in a dictatorship through about thirty years (1392-1421). The need of facing the growing expansionistic aims of Visconti from Milan and the attack of King Ladislao from Neaples favoured this long domination. Albizzi’s signory paved the way for its successors. In a short time the new monarchs had compromised irrimediably the Republic, twisting and depriving its regulations, so as to centralize the power in few hands. But this process was carried to extremes by Rinaldo degli Albizzi, when he excluded the Minor Guilds from power: in this moment Giovanni di Averardo de’ Madici became spokesman of this social class.

Besides being an excellent banker and an able politician, Cosimo was also an incredible Maecenas. This interest was orientated above all toward some eastern philosophies he had heard in the council of Ferrara-Firenze (1438-39) about [it was commemorated by The Magi’s Ride by Benozzo Gozzoli]. Besides his philosophical and theological interests (we remember the Platonic Academy of Carreggi, whose leader was Marsilio Ficino) Cosimo was also interested in pictorical, sculptural and architectural arts (among the painters and the sculptors: Filippo Lippi, Andrea del Castagno, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti; among the architects: Brunelleschi and Michelozzo). Among the architectural works of Cosimo’s age we should point out Palazzo Medici (a work by Michelozzo; since the XVII century became Palazzo Riccardi), the church of Santo Spirito, and the Spedale degli Innocenti (a work by Filippo Brunelleschi).
But Cosimo was not the only Maecenas in Florence: actually the powerful aristocratic families, although they had an inferior political relevance, did not want to have an inferior prestige; so at time Florence did not see only Palazzo Medici, but also the basis of the future Palazzo Pitti. After Cosimo’s death the palaces of other important families were built: Palazzo Strozzi and Palzzo Rucellai (works by Leon Battista Alberti) and Palzzo Gondi (a work by Giuliano da San Gallo).

Not long after The Magnificient’s death a Dominican friar began to preach in San Marco’s Church a Gospel of hope and redemption. Growing into spokesman of both religious and republican ideals, Brother Girolamo Savonarola organized a new political and spiritual regime, which sent Medici away from Florence. Piero de’ Madici had actually no political gift of his father and the concessions he had made to King Charles VIII of France (1494), because of the fear of a struggle, soon moved from him the few likings he had in Florence.

Medici went back to power with ducal title, but by then they knew well the revolutionary nature of the population. For this reason Alessandro de’ Medici got fortess San Giovanni da Basso to be built.
After Alessandro’s hated government, interrupted when he was murdered by Lorenzino de’ Medici (1537), the Signory of Florence was entrusted to another young and charismatic Medici: Cosimo I.

In spite of Cosimo I’s strains, after his death the Great Dukedom began a slow discent. His son Francesco governed the city for a short time, but his love plots prevailed over his political ability. After his mysterious death (1587) and the one of his concubine (Bianca Cappello), his brother Ferdinando took the power. He tried to move the Florentine economic stagnant situation (since time Florentines had lost their commercial and banking dynamism in order to devote themselves to landed property). He tried to enlarge the european diplomatic game, establishing relations with French crown and with Englis and Dutch sailors.

Besides their interests in science, Medici preserved in this period their ancient spirit of artistic Maecenas: so Pietro da Cortona, Giacomo Garzoni, Artemisia Gentileschi worked in Florence and moreover the collection of Uffizi was increased.
Also the Palatine Library (later included in the National Library) and the first theatre in "Italian Stile", the Teatro della Pergola (1656) must be related to this period.

There were a lot of artistic interests also in Cosimo III’s age, although he was not so able in politics and what we can know about his conjungal relations tell us that he must not have been a pleasant person (his wife Maria Luisa d’Orleans returned in France, by then exhausted by a conjugal life full of quarrels). The artists who were at Cosimo III’s court were musician like Alesandro Scarlatti, who executed Rodrigo in 1705, and artists like Stefano della Bella, Luca Giordano. Moreover Cosimo III did not lose the spirit of celebration of family Medici: for this purpose he got the Cappella dei Principi to build, in order to contain the corpse of Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (kept in Mantua); moreover the church of San Frediano in Castello and the Granaio Mediceo were built. Like Medici other families preserved the ancient self-commemorative spirit, among them Corsini and Riccardi.

5. FROM ASBURGO- LORENA DYNASTY TO PRESENT FLORENCE

Pietro Leopoldo was more active: he did not discourage in front of the economic misery, which was impoverishing Tuscany. In order to obviate the crisis, the new Gret Duke eliminated all the protectionisms and the privileges which obstructed free commerce. Moreover under his government the economic-agrarian Academy of the Georgofili was instituted.

The end of the XVIII century was marked in all Europe at first by the French Revolution and then by Napoleon’s campaign. Everywhere the ideals of the revolution spread and the Napoleonic army bent every army which faced it on the ground. From 1799 to 1814 also the Gret Dukedom was governed by Frenches.

The end of Napoleonic experience, which unified Italy for few years, left however the germs of those ideals which drove to italian unity. In this period also in Florence there were two political trends: one which wanted to maintain the political identity of the Great Dukedom, the other which wanted the annexation to the Savoy Kingdom, which was undertaking an important meeting point for those who contributed to diffuse the myth of italian unity, among them Ugo Foscolo, who dedicated Dei Sepolcri to the church of Santa Croce, and Alessandro Manzoni, who chose the cultural Florentine as mould language for the birth of "Italian".
In this period of political ferments the first Florentine station was built in 1847 and the following year it was moved in order to bring it nearer to the centre f the city. Moreover in 1851 an agreement among Italian States allowed a first railway net, which connected the greater regions of central and northern Italy.

But the most important changes of the city happened when the capital of the new kingdom of Italy was moved from Turin to Florence (1864-1871). In this period the city, scornful of its ultracentenarian history, began to emulate the big reference capital of that time: Paris.
The walls were pulled down, the boulevards were created, the Hebrew ghetto was destroyed getting today’s Piazza della Repubblica from it, Piazzale Michelangelo was arranged and San Lorenzo’s Market (inspired by the Halles) was built.

After the experience of Italian capital Flornece did not lose its artistic impulse. So the front of the Cathedral was completed by Emanuele de Fabris (1871-87) and the Synagogue was built (a work by Marco Treves and Vincenzo Micheli, 1872-74).

After the Fascist epoch, which had however seen a certain artistic proliferation (the construction of the station Santa Maria Novella, the Ntional Library, the Stadium and the institution of Musical May), the impulse of creation was substituted by the one of repair, which allowed however to revalue the huge artistic patrimony, which can be still admired.