Via Maggio and the Palace of Bianca Cappello
Why is it significant?
Walk slowly along Via Maggio and glance through the big glass doors on either side: gilded frames, marble busts, painted cabinets, chandeliers lit in the middle of the afternoon.
Key Facts
| Place | Via Maggio and the Palace of Bianca Cappello |
|---|---|
| Address | Via Maggio 26, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 43.76700, 11.24900 |
| Part of Walk | Florence Across the Arno: Oltrarno Artisans, Santo Spirito & San Frediano |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk slowly along Via Maggio and glance through the big glass doors on either side: gilded frames, marble busts, painted cabinets, chandeliers lit in the middle of the afternoon. For generations this has been the street of Florence's antique dealers, and its palaces are almost as old as the things sold inside them.
The name comes from Via Maggiore, the main street, because this was the grand road of the Oltrarno, leading from the bridge towards the Pitti Palace and the road south. Once the Medici moved across the river in the sixteenth century, every courtier wanted a house on their route to work. Now find number 26: a palace whose whole facade is covered in grey and white sgraffito, scrolls, grotesques and little winged figures scratched into the plaster.
This was the house of Bianca Cappello, and her story is the great scandal of Medici Florence. She was a young Venetian noblewoman who ran away from Venice with a Florentine clerk, Pietro Bonaventuri, and married him. In Florence she caught the eye of Francesco de' Medici, the heir to the throne, who was already married to an Austrian archduchess. Francesco made her his mistress and gave her this palace, a few steps from his own. Her husband was conveniently murdered in a street brawl in 1572.
When Francesco's wife died, he married Bianca, and in 1579 the runaway from Venice became Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Florentines never forgave her. In October 1587, at the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano, Francesco and Bianca died within a day of each other. Poison, said everyone, and the suspect was Francesco's brother, who became the next Grand Duke. Modern scientists have examined the remains and argued both ways, arsenic or malaria. The case is still open.
The swirling decoration on the facade was added for her by the painter Bernardino Poccetti, and it is one of the best preserved in the city. Keep walking south along Via Maggio to the point where it opens into a small square, Piazza San Felice.