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History

Torre Guelfa Florence

The Acciaiuoli Palace was founded in 1341 by the will of the Grand Seniscalco, Prime Minister and Connestabile Niccolò Acciaiuoli, at the time one of the most illustrious and powerful men in the city. The 600-year history of the Acciauioli family, Guelphs who fled from Brescia in the 12th century to make a fortune not only in Florence but in the Kingdom of Naples up to the Duchy of Athens, are enclosed within the walls of the Palace.
Built in rustic ashlar stone strong and filaretto, on an architectural level the Acciaiuoli Palace has the appearance of urban fortresses. Three orders of arched windows, highlighted by string courses, mark the imposing three-storey façade that is among the most majestic of Florence.
Large windows open on the upper floors, in line with the arches of the ground floor, while other smaller ones give light to the mezzanine on the first floor.
Still, on the ground floor, the openings on the façade have four round-headed portals, closed by wooden doors with iron studs: in ancient times they gave access to the building and to funds where it was marketed.
On the façade there is also the coat of arms of the Certosa united with that of the Acciaiuoli: two lions holding lily flags, in the center the cross of Calvary and the writing Certosa. All this to remember how on his death Niccolò Acciaiuoli destined the entire Palazzo to the Certosa del Galluzzo, of which he had been the founder.

In addition to this, many small details take you back in time, up to the origin of the Palace: the ancient torch holders, the pennant holders, the rings to tie the bridles of the horses and the harpoons to sting or for the wooden perches where to hang the clothes or the precious drapes that adorned the facade during the city festivals. Inside the Palace, starting from the large hall on the third floor, a wooden staircase leads to an authentic jewel, the historic thirteenth-century Tower, built by the Buondelmonti and later incorporated by the Acciaiuoli Palace by the will of the Grand Siniscalco himself.

In addition to being one of the tallest in the city, the Tower is one of the few of its kind left in Florence, due to the destructions that followed over the centuries and culminated in a disastrous bombing during the Second World War. Its grandeur still towers over the city, within the city, dominating the entirety of its history with a formidable 360 ​​° view.
From the 14th century until the Napoleonic invasions and the suppression of the monastic orders, the Acciaiuoli Palace remained the property of the Carthusian monks.
The Bargello Museum still preserves a precious sink with the Acciaiuoli and Federigi coats of arms which was located in one of the rooms of the Palace, and some city legends are still linked to the Tower and to the historical families of the city.