Palazzo Vecchio de’ Medici / Prefecture

Ristrutturazione neo gotica - Palazzo Vecchio de’ Medici, Prefettura (G. Bettini, Comune di Pisa)
Ristrutturazione neo gotica - Palazzo Vecchio de’ Medici, Prefettura (G. Bettini, Comune di Pisa)

The building, on Lungarno Mediceo began in the 11th century as a casa torre belonging to the nobleman Albizone (o Albitone). Over the centuries it had several owners: the Casapieri, the powerful Appiano family and after 1441, the Medici. In 1539 Cosimo I de’ Medici renovated the rooms without altering its exterior. The first plan to change the facades was in 1545, but modernisation only began in 1550 with what is probably the earliest example in Pisa of ‘kneeling’ windows. Costly Carrara marble was used instead of the more common grey sandstone (Florentine pietra forte). In 1551, after work was completed, a new garden was laid out for Eleonora da Toledo, and in June 1558 she charged Baccio Bandinelli with designing an extension of the building. However, due the death of this architect, work was never begun.
In 1574 Francis I designed the new Pisan residence for the Medicis between Lungarno and via S. Maria (Palazzo Reale) and in 1784, they passed the ‘Palazzo Vecchio’ to Jacopo Finocchietti. Since this is the first known Medici home in Pisa, it is probably the forerunner of other 16th century buildings in Florentine style in this city.
The Renaissance design of the palazzo was destroyed by Ranieri Simonelli’s restructuring in Neogothic style for the Marchesa Vittoria Spinola (morganatic daughter of Vittorio Emanuele II), who replaced the first and second floor windows with the double and triple mullioned windows and marble columns and added the brickwork tower with battlements in 1879. The palazzo is the Headquarters of the Prefecture.

A CASA DI BITTA
40m
Mazzini, 90 p.3
Recapito 331 1487006
TESTAMATTA
100m
Lungarno Mediceo, 16 p.2
Recapito 333 8546761
VERDI
170m
Piazza della Repubblica, 5-6
Recapito 050 598947
LE GONDOLE DI PISA
230m
Santa Marta, 92
Recapito 331 3654723
BABETTE FOOD AND ART CAFE'
90m
Lungarno Mediceo, 15
Recapito 050 9913302
TRATTORIA ALLA GIORNATA
100m
Via Santa Bibbiana, 11
Recapito 050 542504
PIZZERIA DA LARA DI QUAGLIERINI LARA
190m
Via Garibaldi Giuseppe, 18
Recapito 050 540241
BLACK ROSE SRL
200m
Via Delle Belle Torri, 14
Recapito 050 543841