Description
Palazzo Davanzati is a fourteenth-century palace on Via Porta Rossa, in the heart of Florence, which houses the museum of the Old Florentine House. Here you see what life was like in the home of a rich medieval merchant: courtyard, stairs, frescoed rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen.
The façade is narrow and tall, with the loggia at the top and a large Davanzati coat of arms. On the front you can still see the iron R-shaped brackets, torch holders and flag holders, where drapes, washing or little bird cages were hung.
The atrium, once the family's private loggia, has a ceiling with murder holes, openings from which you could watch visitors and drop projectiles and boiling liquids on attackers. The courtyard is a tangle of stairs and balconies, with a private well that carried water to every floor by pulleys: a real luxury for the time.
On the first floor is the Parrot Room, the most famous, with late fourteenth-century frescoes imitating drapes and tapestries with parrot patterns. On the second floor, the bedroom of the Castellana di Vergy is the only one with true frescoes: stories of love, adventure and death taken from a medieval legend.
At the top is the kitchen, placed on the top floor so as not to fill the house with smoke and to allow a quick escape in case of fire. Among the utensils are a kneading trough, a roasting spit, irons and spinning tools.
It was built in the mid-1300s by the Davizzi, rich merchants of the Calimala guild. In 1578 the historian Bernardo Davanzati bought it, and his family stayed until 1838, when the last heir took his own life. Then came decline, until an antiques dealer with a brilliant idea.
“All filthy and dark, with the stairs half in ruins.” This is how Giovanni Papini described the palace, having rented a room there in 1902 to found, with Prezzolini, the magazine “Il Leonardo.”
In 1904 Elia Volpi bought it, restored it for five years and furnished it like a fourteenth-century house: in 1910 he opened it as a museum, and travelers came to copy its furnishings for their villas.
In 1916 Volpi sold all the furniture at auction in New York, at great profit, launching the Neo-Renaissance fashion in America. The palace passed from hand to hand until the State bought it in 1951; in 1956 it opened as a museum.
Don't miss
• The Parrot Room.
• The bedroom of the Castellana di Vergy.
• The courtyard with the well.
• The kitchen at the top.
Did you know?
• In the atrium's ceiling there are murder holes for striking attackers from above.
• Many rooms had their own bathroom, called an “agiamento.”
The façade is narrow and tall, with the loggia at the top and a large Davanzati coat of arms. On the front you can still see the iron R-shaped brackets, torch holders and flag holders, where drapes, washing or little bird cages were hung.
The atrium, once the family's private loggia, has a ceiling with murder holes, openings from which you could watch visitors and drop projectiles and boiling liquids on attackers. The courtyard is a tangle of stairs and balconies, with a private well that carried water to every floor by pulleys: a real luxury for the time.
On the first floor is the Parrot Room, the most famous, with late fourteenth-century frescoes imitating drapes and tapestries with parrot patterns. On the second floor, the bedroom of the Castellana di Vergy is the only one with true frescoes: stories of love, adventure and death taken from a medieval legend.
At the top is the kitchen, placed on the top floor so as not to fill the house with smoke and to allow a quick escape in case of fire. Among the utensils are a kneading trough, a roasting spit, irons and spinning tools.
It was built in the mid-1300s by the Davizzi, rich merchants of the Calimala guild. In 1578 the historian Bernardo Davanzati bought it, and his family stayed until 1838, when the last heir took his own life. Then came decline, until an antiques dealer with a brilliant idea.
“All filthy and dark, with the stairs half in ruins.” This is how Giovanni Papini described the palace, having rented a room there in 1902 to found, with Prezzolini, the magazine “Il Leonardo.”
In 1904 Elia Volpi bought it, restored it for five years and furnished it like a fourteenth-century house: in 1910 he opened it as a museum, and travelers came to copy its furnishings for their villas.
In 1916 Volpi sold all the furniture at auction in New York, at great profit, launching the Neo-Renaissance fashion in America. The palace passed from hand to hand until the State bought it in 1951; in 1956 it opened as a museum.
Don't miss
• The Parrot Room.
• The bedroom of the Castellana di Vergy.
• The courtyard with the well.
• The kitchen at the top.
Did you know?
• In the atrium's ceiling there are murder holes for striking attackers from above.
• Many rooms had their own bathroom, called an “agiamento.”