The Palazzo dei Vicari, Piazza de Vicari Scarperia, FI Tuscany Italy, now housing the Knife Museum
Scarperia is one of the most interesting historic centres in Mugello, an inland Tuscan valley which the Apennine passes connect to Bologna and Emilia-Romagna. The hamlet, which was founded as a Florentine outpost along the road to Bologna, later became an important centre for trade and a halting place, given its strategic position. Today it is still crossed and divided into two by the Bologna road, around which the buildings have created an urban fabric enclosed by the walls and interspersed by square towers. The heart of the fortified settlement is the Palazzo dei Vicari, a residential palace dating back to the fourteenth century, stark and turreted on the side looking onto the square and a fortress at the rear. Two large walls forming a vast courtyard connect it to the keep, itself part of the western tract of the city walls, which unfortunately have only been well preserved in some sections. The entire palace building has escarped walls at the bottom, and a slim tower with merlons and corbels rises up from the right corner of the facade facing the square. The restoration work done after the 1929 earthquake has made it similar to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The facade is decorated with the many blazons of the series of Vicars who superseded each other in governing the town, revealing how sought after this appointment was by the most powerful Florentines. Each new Vicar was obliged to leave the emblem of his family coat-of arms. The blazons in glazed terracotta made by Della Robbia and Benedetto Buglioni in their workshops are of particular interest. The inside is decorated with finishes and frescoes from the Renaissance period, in stark contrast to the rugged external appearance of the palace. On the upper floor, in the first room is a Madonna with Child and Saints (1554) from the school of Ghirlandaio. The Palazzo dei Vicari which can now be fully visited after its recent restoration, looks onto the main square of the town where there are also two religious
Size: 3420px × 5109px
Location: Piazza de Vicari Scarperia, FI Tuscany Italy
Photo credit: © Christine Webb / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: arms, blazons, coat-, de, dei, emblems, glazed, hall, il, italian, italy, knife, mugello, museum, palazzo, piazza, scarperia, shields, terracotta, toscana, town, tuscany, vicari
