Caffè degli Artigiani
Le Telerie Toscane di Giulia
Metallo Nobile
Omero Benvenuti
Pitti Square is probably the most famous among Oltrarno's squares; it is characterized by the imposing palace and counts to the few Florentine squares built without a religious function.
History
The square was conceived in 1440, when the bankier Luca Pitti decided to build a very big palace in order to show to the whole city how rich and powerful his family was.
The ambitious project included a square in front of the palace: for its building Luca Pitti bought and demolished all the houses flanking a part of the street Borgo di Piazza (today: Via Guicciardini). This open place was soon called «Via del Palagio dei Pitti» ("Street of the Pitti's palace"), but the building of the palace and of the whole square remained uncompleted due to its frightening cost - even for the so rich Luca Pitti such an adventure proved soon to be too expensive.
Click to enlarge pictures.
In 1549 Elonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, bought the palace, which was then enlarged and widened in several times; in 18th Century a part of the square was filled by the two side-wings of the palace, built after a design of Giuseppe Ruggeri and Pasquale Poccianti, and a portion of the ancient Palazzo Guicciardini was demolished, in order to give to the square a more regular shape.
On the side of the square facing the palace are some notable buildings which survived the demolition of Luca Pitti; among them are a second (and by far smaller) Palazzo Pitti, decorated with the coat of arms of the family, and the palace where in the years 1397-1482 lived the mathematician Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli, author of the maps used by Cristoforo Colombo in his sailing "towards India". In another palace the Russian author Dostojevskij completed in 1868-69 his novel The idiot.
The square is visited by countless tourists, and until 1993 was used as parking; since that year the square has been restorated and closed to the traffic.
