Palazzo Auditore
The Palazzo Auditore, or the Auditore Palace, was the home of the noble Auditore family within the city of Florence. The building was easily recognizable by the flags bearing the Auditore family emblem.
F THIS BLAD History
Construction and conception
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. These included secret passages and rooms where Giovanni could perform his Assassin duties.[1][2]
Auditore execution
The building was completed in 1473, but in 1476, the Auditore family was executed 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]
Destruction
Between 1498 and 1500, rumors of the palazzo's destruction had reached the surviving Auditore in Monteriggioni. Once Ezio had arrived in Rome in January 1500, Niccolò Machiavelli confirmed that the palace had been demolished.[4]
Trivia
- In Assassin's Creed II, the database entry for the Palazzo Auditore inaccurately described it as "a fixture of the Santa Maria Novella district" instead of the San Giovanni district.
- 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 was inaccessible.
- Also within the certain memory, the door which led to Giovanni's hidden room was inaccessible. The secret entrance itself could not be seen, even with Eagle Vision.
- In the novelization of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the Palazzo Auditore was referred to as the "Villa Auditore". Likewise, the Auditore villa in Monteriggioni was referred to as "Mario's Citadel".
Gallery
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Development concept for the hidden room -
The Palazzo and its surrounding streets -
The Palazzo under guard
References