Palazzo Auditore
The Palazzo Auditore (English: Auditore Palace) was the home of the noble Auditore family within the city of Florence. The building was easily recognisable by the flags bearing the Auditore family emblem.
Initial sketches for the palazzo were completed by Leone Battista Alberti, but the actual plans were completed by the building's commissioner and owner, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze.[1] These included secret passages and rooms where Giovanni could perform his Assassin duties.[1][2]
The building was completed in 1473, but in 1476, the Auditore family was disgraced and the building was abandoned, apart from a contingent of Florentine city guards stationed along the palazzo's roof.[1] The building remained in this state at least until the death of Girolamo Savonarola in 1498. Ezio Auditore visited his family home during Savonarola's Bonfire of the Vanities, where he experienced a ghostly vision of his family.[3]
Between 1498 and 1500, rumours of the palazzo's destruction reached the surviving Auditore in Monteriggioni. When Ezio reached Rome in January 1500, Niccolò Machiavelli confirmed the palace had been destroyed.[4]
Database Entry
Completed in 1473, the Palazzo Auditore is notable for its rusticated stonework and Roman pilasters. Giovanni Auditore designed the palazzo himself, based on initial sketches by Leone Battista Alberti.
Once built, the palazzo became a fixture of the Santa Maria Novella district. Lorenzo de' Medici mentioned in a letter addressed to Giovanni, dated 1474, that he admired the facade's lack of "ostentation".[1]
Trivia
- During the Cristina Memories of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the door to Giovanni's office is open and can be entered. In Assassin's Creed II, this area is inaccessible.[5][1]
- Also within the certain memory, the door which leads to Giovanni's hidden room is inaccessible. The secret entrance itself cannot be seen even with Eagle vision.
- In the novelization of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the Palazzo Auditore is referred to as the "Villa Auditore". The Auditore home in Monteriggioni is referred to as Mario's Citadel.[4]
References
Gallery
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The Palazzo and its surrounding streets. -
The Palazzo under guard.
