Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871. The city was built on the site of an Etruscan and later Roman settlement, Florence, the symbol of the Renaissance, rose to dominate culturally and economically in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under the rule of the Medici. Its 600 years of extraordinary artistic activity can be seen mainly in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (XIII century), the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti, and the work of the great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo.
The entire historic center of Florence since 1982 is part of the list of world heritage sites by UNESCO. In the UNESCO justification for the inclusion of Florence in the list of world heritage sites is written: "the greatest concentration of universally renmned works of art in the world is fond here". (UNESCO Advisory Body Evaluation, 1982)
Anotole France wrote in 1894: "The God who made the hills of Florence was an artist [...] He was a goldsmith and engraver of medals, sculptor, bronze founder and painter, he was a Florentine." (Anatole France (François-Anatole Thibault) "Lys Rouge" 1894)
Today Florence (Municipality: 366,000 inhabitants (102.41 square km); Metropolitan Area: 1,510,000 inhabitants (4,844 square km)) is the capital of the homonymous province and of the region of Tuscany. The city economy is based on tourism, industries (textiles and clothing, metal, optical, chemical, pharmaceutical, glass and ceramics) and a flourishing craftsmanship (lace, gold, processing of straw).
Were born or worked in Florence: Giotto, Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Giovanni Boccaccio, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), Niccolò Machiavelli, Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent, Pietro Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo), Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo 1511 - Firenze 1574), Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), Niccolò Pericoli (Tribolo) (Florence 1500-1558), Leon Battista Alberti, Masaccio, Donatello, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Amerigo Vespucci, Toscanelli, Francesco Guicciardini, Bartolomeo Ammannati (Settignano 1511 - Florence 1592), Galileo Galilei, Giovanni da Verrazzano, Giambologna ...
GUIDE TO PLACES TO VISIT IN THE CITY OF FLORENCE
|