Description
Palazzo Nonfinito is a 16th-century palace in Florence, on Via del Proconsolo, a stone's throw from the Duomo, with a remarkable front on Borgo degli Albizi as well. Since 1924 it has housed the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. The name says it all: many architects began it, none finished it.
It was commissioned in 1593 by Alessandro Strozzi, who soon ran into financial trouble and sold it to his brother Roberto. The first design is by Bernardo Buontalenti, who built the ground floor and left in 1600 after a quarrel with the Strozzi over the position of the grand staircase.
After him came Scamozzi, Caccini, Cigoli and Nigetti, each with his own ideas. The design called for two more floors, but they were never built, and neither the interiors nor the main front were ever finished.
On the Via del Proconsolo side, the very tall arched doorway, attributed to Caccini, stands out, with the Strozzi coat of arms above it and the date 1614. High up on the corner, a second marble coat of arms has two female figures holding the shield.
The ground floor has flat rustication, monumental corner pilasters and large kneeling windows, resting on big brackets. In the pediments, sometimes broken and curled, a strange figure hides, like a bat with a sinister look.
It was precisely those little monsters that, in the late 19th century, inspired the writer Charles Godfrey Leland's legend of Roberto Strozzi making a pact with the devil: by cursing the palace, the devil would have prevented him from ever finishing it. It is only a legend, invented by the writer.
Inside, the courtyard has a loggia with Serlian arches on Tuscan columns, in a Venetian taste reinterpreted the Florentine way; two of the sides are by Cigoli, in 1604. In a niche in front of the entrance stands a 16th-century statue, Perseus slaying the dragon.
The grand staircase, the cause of the quarrel, takes up considerable space and has handrails supported by stone balusters. On the piano nobile, frescoed ceilings remain from the time when Florence was the capital, with the arms of the House of Savoy and the Italian cities.
In the 19th century there were government offices here, and in 1864 Carlo Collodi, the father of Pinocchio, worked here as a clerk. Later the palace housed the Council of State and, for ten years, the Post and Telegraph offices.
Don't miss
• The doorway on Via del Proconsolo.
• The kneeling windows.
• The courtyard.
• The anthropology museum.
Did you know?
• The name "Nonfinito" appears for the first time in a guidebook of 1822.
• At number 30 Borgo degli Albizi, disguised as fake rustication, there is a small secret door, used by the Customs informers.
It was commissioned in 1593 by Alessandro Strozzi, who soon ran into financial trouble and sold it to his brother Roberto. The first design is by Bernardo Buontalenti, who built the ground floor and left in 1600 after a quarrel with the Strozzi over the position of the grand staircase.
After him came Scamozzi, Caccini, Cigoli and Nigetti, each with his own ideas. The design called for two more floors, but they were never built, and neither the interiors nor the main front were ever finished.
On the Via del Proconsolo side, the very tall arched doorway, attributed to Caccini, stands out, with the Strozzi coat of arms above it and the date 1614. High up on the corner, a second marble coat of arms has two female figures holding the shield.
The ground floor has flat rustication, monumental corner pilasters and large kneeling windows, resting on big brackets. In the pediments, sometimes broken and curled, a strange figure hides, like a bat with a sinister look.
It was precisely those little monsters that, in the late 19th century, inspired the writer Charles Godfrey Leland's legend of Roberto Strozzi making a pact with the devil: by cursing the palace, the devil would have prevented him from ever finishing it. It is only a legend, invented by the writer.
Inside, the courtyard has a loggia with Serlian arches on Tuscan columns, in a Venetian taste reinterpreted the Florentine way; two of the sides are by Cigoli, in 1604. In a niche in front of the entrance stands a 16th-century statue, Perseus slaying the dragon.
The grand staircase, the cause of the quarrel, takes up considerable space and has handrails supported by stone balusters. On the piano nobile, frescoed ceilings remain from the time when Florence was the capital, with the arms of the House of Savoy and the Italian cities.
In the 19th century there were government offices here, and in 1864 Carlo Collodi, the father of Pinocchio, worked here as a clerk. Later the palace housed the Council of State and, for ten years, the Post and Telegraph offices.
Don't miss
• The doorway on Via del Proconsolo.
• The kneeling windows.
• The courtyard.
• The anthropology museum.
Did you know?
• The name "Nonfinito" appears for the first time in a guidebook of 1822.
• At number 30 Borgo degli Albizi, disguised as fake rustication, there is a small secret door, used by the Customs informers.