Florence

Florence

Marcus Aurelius, or perhaps Diocletian, made it the headquarters of the Corrector Italiae, a kind of governor who was responsible for Tuscany and Umbria.

With the arrival of the barbarians, Florence was first besieged by the Ostrogoths (405). Next came the Byzantines, who occupied Florence in 539, and the Goths who took ov... Read on

Florence

Marcus Aurelius, or perhaps Diocletian, made it the headquarters of the Corrector Italiae, a kind of governor who was responsible for Tuscany and Umbria.

With the arrival of the barbarians, Florence was first besieged by the Ostrogoths (405). Next came the Byzantines, who occupied Florence in 539, and the Goths who took over the city in 541.

Under Lombard domination (570) it managed to safeguard its autonomy, while under the Franks the number of inhabitants diminished and the city lost most of its territories.

Around the year 1000, the city (whose symbol is a lily) began to expand. In 1183 it became a free commune, even though it had already actually availed itself of this freedom for many years. The first clashes between the two factions, Guelf and Ghibelline, date from this period. The former were followers of the Pope, the latter of the Emperor. The ensuing struggles were to lacerate the civil structure of the city until 1268. Despite the unstable social and political situation, this period witnessed an upsurge in the arts and in literature: this was the time of Dante and his “dolce stil novo”, of Giotto and Arnolfo di Cambio. In the 15th century Florence grew as a trading centre but also as the new cradle for Italian, and eventually European, culture. Many powerful families (the Pitti, Frescobaldi, Strozzi, Albizi) vied for supremacy in the city and one soon took control. The powerful Medici, a family of bankers that began with the founder Cosimo 1, later known as the Elder, were to govern up to the first half of the 18th century, transforming Florence into a beacon during the period of Humanism and the Renaissance. In 1737 the Medicis were succeeded by the house of Lorraine and government continued along the lines of moderate liberalism, though by then the greatest period of Florentine culture was on the wane. In 1860, during the Risorgimento, Tuscany was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with a plebiscite. Florence then briefly became the capital of the new nation. The city’s historic centre suffered terrible damage during the Second World War and some important buildings were completely destroyed, yet despite this and the flood of 1966 which had such a devastating effect on the urban fabric and structure, the fascination of Florence has survived over the centuries.

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