Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti was a building located in the Oltrarno district of Florence.
History
Sometime between 1481 and 1488, Girolamo Riario sent some of his men to ransack the Palazzo Pitti, they succeeded in killing some of its residents and stealing a valuable map, before returning to Girolamo in Forlì. Soon after, Lorenzo de' Medici contacted the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze via pigeon coop while he was in Forlì, explaining to him what had had happened. With this knowledge, Ezio hunted down and killed Lord Girolamo's men.[1]
Later, Girolamo Savonarola took up residence in the Palazzo after taking over Florence in 1494, and made it his primary residence, until in 1498 the people of Florence, hating his anti-materialist laws, gathered in a mob in front of the Palazzo Pitti. Savonarola, trying to reason with the people, eventually tried to use the Apple of Eden to calm the mob, though it was thrown out of his hand by a throwing knife from the Assassins. Powerless, Savonarola was captured by the mob and carried to the Palazzo della Signoria to be burned at the stake.[2]
Database Entry
Intended as a grand display of wealth by Luca Pitti, the Pitti Palace was left incomplete when Luca ran out of money and died in 1472. The severe Roman-style architecture is reminiscent of the craggy stone arches of the ancient imperial aqueducts found outside Rome.[2]
Trivia
- Historically, Girolamo Savonarola lived in the Chiesa di San Marco (Church of San Marco) after he took over Florence. The Palazzo Pitti would still have been in the possession of the Pitti family at the time.
References