The Destruction of old Center in Florence in the Later Half of the 19th Centur
The last decades: After the capital of Italy was transferred to Rome (1 July 1871) the city was bankrupt because of the enormous amount of work that had been undertaken.
Within three years the population dropped by twenty-thousand. In addition to the exodus brought about by the transfer of the capital, we must also consider the workers who had come to Florence during the boom and then returned to their original homes.
In the municipal government's report on the town planning scheme, presented by the mayor Ubaldino Peruzzi in 1872 we can read "we must mainly:
1-facilitate communications between the accesses to the city and the main districts;
2 - facilitate communications between the places where most of the population congregates;
3 - free the fine monuments from the buildings and disfigurement".
These guidelines clearly show that there was still concern about traffic problems in the city's center, while on the other hand, in the city's culture, concern for the role of the monument - taken as a block - went beyond the context.
The building transformation within the old city center continued. The opening of the Lungarni Della Zecca Vecchia, Serristori, and Torrigiani (1870-72) concluded the process that had begun with the building of Lungarno Vespucci so that by the end of the century the city's relationship with the river was completely changed.
In 1859 the Grand Duke Leopoldo II had called a competition for the cathedral's façade. In 1860, during his sojourn in Florence, King Vittorio Emanuele laid the first stone, but many years and many competitions were to pass before Emilio De Fabris's (1871) façade was built, and the work was carried on after his death by Luigi Del Moro. The new façade was inaugurated in 1887.
Grandiose celebrations were held for the occasion: performances at the Pergola theater, historic pageants, a grand ball in Palazzo Vecchio, an historic tournament at Pratoni della Zecca where an amphitheater for 25,000 spectators was built. During the celebrations the first electric lighting was inaugurated in Via Calzaiuoli, Via Cerretani and Via Tornabuoni. As to the façade itself, Diego Martelli's comments are still applicable: "folaga of fat years and lean years", "artistic concept of interchangeable pieces", "bisexual façade."
The first ideas for rearranging the center were put forth during the Napoleonic occupation. However, no concrete measures were taken during the century, not even for the area of the Mercato Vecchio which because of its sanitary conditions was one of the breeding grounds for the violent cholera epidemic that struck Florence in 1835.
In 1865 after the annexation, the chief engineer of the city, Luigi Del Sarto drew up demolition plans and designed for a new food market between Piazza Brunelleschi and Via Cardinali, in the old center. Other plans were drawn up in 1861 by a group of financiers and powerful citizens.
Beyond the official justifications that turn to art and history on the one hand, and reasons concerning traffic and hygiene on the other, the "upgrading" of the old center around the Mercato Vecchio, that was done at the end of the century was due mainly to the middle class's desire to affirm its prestige. The means for this too was building speculation: "for long years they debated this issue with a series of incredible proposals from the city and professionals and even from speculators who offered a fantasmagorical sequence of variations to the same error" (E. Detti, 1970).
In 1884 the paperwork for expropriation was begun and in 1885 the Old Ghetto was already evacuated. While demolition continued the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio was enlarged to the current dimensions of Piazza della Repubblica. In 1890 the monument to Vittorio Emanuele was raised, and then it was moved to the Piazzale delle Cascine in 1931. During those years many architects and companies submitted plans and designs, they were displayed in the windows of the most important stores, like the plans for the cathedral façade.
The demolition of the old buildings in the ancient city center was nearly completed. Only a few isolated buildings were saved according to rather uncertain selection criteria. A committee was appointed to stud the buildings in the area to be demolished.
At the end some monumental or historically valuable elements were saved (they are in the Museo di San Marco and the Museo Bardini), and on the whole, their number was irrelevant. Some other monumental elements were saved to be reused in "restoration" work: the Tabernacle of S. Maria della Tromba, built in the second half of the fourteenth century at the corner of the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio at the beginning of Via Calimala was moved to the north east corner of the Palazzo dell'Arte della Lana. Equally inadequate, albeit valuable, were the surveys on the foundations of the Roman city directed by the architect Corinto Corinti, the surveys by the city government, and Giuseppe Baccani's photographic campaign before and during the work.
In the "upgrading" area, where ever since the city began buildings had been stratified, very important structures were torn down, such as several towers including Maeri and Caponsacchi on Piazza del Mercato Vecchio, the churches of S. Andrea, S. Pier Buon Consiglio. S. Tommaso, S. Maria in Campidoglio; the headquarters of the Guilds of the Hoteliers and Second-Hand Goods Dealers, etc. Vasari's Loggia del Pesce and the Abbondanza column were dismantled. They were recently relocated, the first in Piazza dei Ciompi, the second where it was before (Piazza della Repubblica).
Many years of discussions and debates, however did not reveal any serious criticism of what was the greatest urbanistic error of the century. The negative opinions and laments came immediately. We can remember Telemaco Signorini's sonnet "Fosti per tutto de' toscani autori/sorgente viva di linguaggio usato / ed ora t'hanno ucciso i professori!... / Addio per sempre, pover Mercato / addio studio di forme e di colori / dal secolo dei dotti inesplorato".
In order to "reclaim" the old center it was first necessary to build new markets. The central market of S. Lorenzo was built between Via Dell'Ariento, Via S. Antonino, S. Chiara and Via Panicale, destroying the housing that existed there - the Camaldoli di S. Lorenzo. Built of steel to the interesting plans by Giuseppe Mengoni, the man who designed the Gallery in Milan, the market was opened in 1874 with the International Agricultural Exposition.
The market of S. Ambrogio, built in the large vegetable garden on the block beyond S. Croce towards the walls, was also cast iron; it was opened in 1873 about one year before S. Lorenzo (fig. 20). In 1875 the S. Frediano market was opened (later it was abolished) on the new Piazza dei Nerli and adjacent street.
The social cost of this upgrading was very high. Among other things, during the "slow by progressive slaughter of the center, the wealthier population had gradually and naturally moved towards the bourgeois suburbs beyond the viali, while the lower classes who were more miserable than ever due to the abandonment.
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