Palazzo Pitti

The Pitti Palace is a Renaissance palace in Florence in the Oltrarno district, and is the largest building of this district on the south side of the Arno. The ascribed to it in its basic components Filippo Brunelleschi building was built around 1458 for the merchant Luca Pitti.

What is striking is the consistent use roughly hewn stone blocks ( ashlar ) as the only facade jewels in any three mutually very similar levels ( here is an important difference to the Palazzo Medici - Riccardi and Palazzo Strozzi, which the building typical of the buildings of the Florentine nobility fortress-like character to ).

After the Pittis participation in the conspiracy of the Pazzi were transferred, the construction for almost one hundred years remained unfinished. Only after he had been in 1549 to Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de ' Medici, sold, they started rebuilding and extension and the Boboli Gardens plant. The Florentine rafter roof was replaced by a lower, hidden behind balustrades. Bartolomeo Ammannati added in 1568 in the walled arched porches on the ground floor Renaissance window. He was also responsible for the garden facade, the design of the court and for parts of the gardens. The main building, which was originally created three stories with seven window bays, has been enlarged to a width of 13 window bays 1620-1631 and expanded with two two-story wings, each with five axes that Brunelleschi and Ammannati continue facade design seamlessly. The last was followed in 1764 one-storey side extensions with arches framing the forecourt.

In 1565, Giorgio Vasari built a long corridor on the Ponte Vecchio, which connects the Palazzo Pitti on the church of Santa Felicita, the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi with the Palazzo Vecchio on the other side of the Arno. Thus, the residents of the palace were the common people unmolested between residence and town hall swing back and forth.

The Palazzo Pitti was since the 16th century residence of the Dukes of Tuscany, later, the Florentine residence of the King of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel III. joined him in 1919 to the Italian State from - since the Palazzo Pitti and his paintings collections are open to the public, including the Galleria Palatina of the Medici with works by Titian, Giorgione, Raphael and Rubens and the Galleria d' arte moderna with works from classicism to start Italian Futurism at the turn of the century of the twentieth century.

The Pitti Palace hosts the following museums or permanent exhibitions:

• Galleria Palatina ( art collection of the Medici )
• Galleria d' Arte Moderna ( images of classicism to neo-classicism )
• The Costume Gallery ( Galleria del Costume)
• The Porcelain Museum (Museo delle Porcellane )
• The Silver Museum (Museo degli Argenti )
• The royal apartments ( Appartamenti Reali )
• The Carriage Museum (Museo delle Carrozze )

Furthermore, a station of the Carabinieri is housed in a wing of the building, which was known by the detective novels of British writer Magdalen Nabb.

The Palazzo Pitti was the model for the Königsbau the Munich Residence.