The Gonfalone of
the Drago covers the entire area of the stretch of the Arno between the
Ponte Santa Trinita and the Torrino di Santa Rosa, the ancient walls that
joined it with San Frediano and Porta Romana (in great part still there
along Viale Ariosto and Viale Petrarca), Via dei Serragli up to Via della
Chiesa, Via delle Caldaie, Via del Presto di San Martino and Piazza Frescobaldi.
It was one of the largest of the Gonfaloni, with a population that came
mostly from the surrounding countryside, clustered around the numerous
religious settlements.
The best way to wander though this area and discover
the charm of San Frediano and its most characteristic nooks and corners
is to think of the long Via dei Serragli as the borderline with the neighboring
Gonfalone.
Ponte alla Carraia
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The itinerary begins at the Ponte alla
Carraia, dating to the early thirteenth century, destroyed in 1944 and
rebuilt in the 1950s. From Piazza Nazario Sauro, where the Soderini owned
numerous houses, walk along the Lungarno Soderini, once lined by the gardens
of this illustrious family. Skirt the wall of the Seminario Maggiore, till
you get to Piazza del Cestello, with a magnificent view of the church of
Ognissanti across the way and the patrician palazzi on the right bank of
the Arno. The western side of the piazza is closed by Cosimo III’s massive
"Granaio" or Grain warehouse, built in 1695. |
The church of San Frediano in Cestello, with
a bare stone and brick facade, was built at the end of the 17th century
by Antonio Ferri who completed it with the elegant dome set on a drum and
the small bell tower. It replaced the small church of Santa Maria degli
Angeli which was part of the convent where Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi
had lived before the Carmelites were transferred from Borgo San Frediano
to Borgo Pinti.
Inside, the decoration and the stucco ornaments
lend it a festive pleasant air. The various artists who worked here included
Pier Dandini, Camillo Sagrestani, Alessandro Gherardini, Domenico Gabbiani,
Matteo Bonechi, and Francesco Curradi. |
S. Frediano in Cestello
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The rest of the south side of the square is occupied
by typically Florentine modest houses
Continue along Via del Piaggione, up to Via and
Piazza del Tiratoio, a name that refers to the Wool Guild building in which
the woolen cloths, spun, woven and dyed in the neighboring workshops, were
hung to dry.
Silk loom
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After crossing Via Sant’Onofrio (patron saint
of weavers), which leads to the A. Vespucci Bridge, turn into Via Lorenzo
Bartolini, a rather anonymous street where the municipal slaughter house
once stood. Various furniture restorers and well known artisan silk and
silver workshops are located here.
Fine silk fabrics are still made here in line
with the traditions of the 15th century when Florence was in the fore in
the working of brocades with as many as 83 workshops "of the art of silk
magnificent and of great worth, who make silk cloths and gold brocades,
of the orient and velvet damasks and satins and taffetas..." In another
"workshop" marvelous objects in silver are created, strictly by hand, worked
in repoussé and chasing just as Cellini and the Renaissance goldsmiths
used to do. |
Arnolfo’s old walls can be seen at the end of the
street with the Torrino di Santa Rosa on the right with its large tabernacle
framing a fine fresco attributed to Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.
If you turn left, the street broadens out into
the Piazza Verzaia, so-called because of the green of the vegetable gardens
once there, with the majestic city gate of San Frediano built in 1334,
perhaps on a design by Andrea Pisano. The old nail-studded doors, the iron
rings and the lily, symbol of the city, at the top, are still there.
Turning into Borgo San Frediano, one is likely
to find craftsmen producing objects in paper, in leather, pottery, shoemakers
making shoes to measure and even a lute maker. After Via San Giovanni,
with its typical "humble" houses, is Piazza de’ Nerli. Via dei Cordatori
and Via dei Tessitori in the vicinity still bear the names of the old crafts
(cord makers and weavers). Via del Drago d’Oro on the other hand is named
after the old Gonfalone, a golden dragon, and is in a sense the realm of
the second-hand shops, small antique dealers, blacksmiths and bronze workers.
The potter’s work
Via dell’Orto leads to Via di Camoldoli, named
after the convent founded in the 12th century by the monks of San Romualdo.
In Florence the name "Camaldoli" has come to mean the poorest places, and
this is where cloth weavers, carders and combers lived in the 14th and
15th centuries. As did many painters, including Bicci di Lorenzo, Pesello,
Bonaiuto di Giovanni and Benozzo di Lese, better known as Gozzoli. The
Camaldolites left after the siege of Florence of 1530 and the spacious
monastery suffered hard times and was transformed into a poor house or
ospedale di mendicità while part was turned into the Conventino,
or Institute of San Francesco di Sales, with an entrance on Viale Ariosto.
At present the former monastery on Via di Camaldoli houses warehouses,
health facilities and artisan workshops. There is also a workshop in this
street specialized in repairing the fortepiano, the ancestor of the piano,
and a concert hall.
Until the 1970s Via dell’Orto and Via di Camaldoli
were famous for the preparation of tripe which was boiled in great cauldrons
over wood fires. The water or "broth" in which they were cooked was sold
in flasks by errand boys and enjoyed hot in the workshops throughout the
neighborhood.
The next stop is Piazza Torquato Tasso, opened
towards Bellosguardo in 1912 and then enlarged in the 1930s, pushing it
back as far as Via della Chiesa.
Inside and along the walls of Viale Petrarca
was where the hackney drivers kept their coaches and horses, while in a
corner between Via del Leone and Via della Chiesa is the copy of a fine
tabernacle attributed to Giottino. At the beginning of the street, in the
Albergo popolare built at the back of the Carmine, one can see one of the
finest frescoes by Master Luciano Guarnieri depicting the Arno and its
valley. |
Hackney drivers’
horses in the former stables in viale Petrarca
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Continue along Via del Campuccio up to Via dei Serragli,
with 19th-century low-cost housing on the left and the wall of the Torrigiani
gardens on the right. They are one of the largest private gardens in Florence
(almost seven hectares) "a piece of nature set into the city".
At the corner with Via dei Serragli, the oratory
of the old monastery of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite, transformed into
the Istituto degli Artigianelli, has been reopened.
Continuing along Via dei Serragli, you pass Via
della Chiesa, where the corner shrine contains a fresco of the "Madonna
and Child with Saints" by Cosimo Ulivelli (1668), and eventually reach
the narrow quiet Via dell’Ardiglione which leads to Via Santa Monaca. At
the arch known as del Papi, a plaque commemorates the house where the great
painter Fra’ Filippo Lippi was born.
In Via Santa Monaca, in the premises of the former
Augustinian monastery frescoed by Cosimo Ulivelli, Camilla Martelli, second
wife of Cosimo I, died.
At the "Canto alla Cuculia" on the corner with
Via dei Serragli you can stop and admire the charming shrine with the fresco
of the "Madonna and Child with Saints" by Lorenzo di Bicci.
To be noted in the stretch of Via dei Serragli
which moves down towards the Arno are the fine Mazzai, Pallavicini and
Rosselli del Turco palazzi. There are numerous stores and historical shops
of second-hand dealers and bronze workers along this stretch. From the
corner between Borgo Stella and Borgo San Frediano the most striking building
is the spacious Palazzo Del Pugliese, which later passed to the marquis
Feroni, with its spacious courtyard and garden.
Borgo Stella leads into Piazza del Carmine, and
the itinerary comes to an end in the temple of Italian painting: the ancient
church of Santa Maria del Carmine with the famous frescoes by Masaccio,
Masolino and Filippino Lippi in the Renaissance Brancacci Chapel. The Baroque
Corsini Chapel with the masterpieces by Foggini and Luca Giordano, the
church, rebuilt after 1771, the sacristy and the entire convent deserve
a leisurely visit.
Church of the Carmine
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