Palazzo Vecchietti

The palace occupies a compact block between via dei Vecchietti and via degli Strozzi, close to Piazza della Repubblica in Florence’s Santa Maria Novella quarter, and it preserves fabric from several historical stages. The lowest section of the exterior shows very ancient construction, reflecting the medieval origins of the site. The complex developed from contiguous family houses and retains the footprint of that older grouping, including the historic corner tower and a covered exterior gallery, called a loggia (covered exterior gallery), which link the street fronts with the interior courtyard.

The principal façade facing via dei Vecchietti shows the late Renaissance arrangement produced in the late 16th century. The main reception floor, the noble floor (main reception floor), has window architraves that bear inscriptions invoking Bernardo Vecchietti and the year 1578, repeated across the front. Above the portal at number 2 a carved shield displays the Poltri family coat of arms set on a six‑peaked mount, surmounted by a chained hunting horn with a chief bearing the symbol of Saint Stephen. The opposite elevation on via degli Strozzi presents six bays introduced during the 19th‑century intervention and is notable for two large lateral balconies; its noble-floor window surrounds also carry inscriptions recalling the 1578 rebuilding and the later 1828 commission.

The angular block known locally as the Canto dei Diavoli, or corner of the Devils, is emphasised by projecting rusticated blocks and by a high heraldic shield carved by Giambologna that carries the Vecchietti arms, blue with five ermine spots arranged two, two and one. Beneath this shield sits a bronze copy of the little Devil figure; the original bronze now rests in the Bardini Museum. Entering through the main door leads into the original 15th‑century courtyard, which preserves a sgraffito‑decorated loggia and a staircase attributed to Giambologna. The courtyard also contains the gathered stone fragments removed from buildings demolished elsewhere in the centre of the city in the late 19th century, displayed together as a private lapidary. In the short entrance passage on via degli Strozzi an early window element by Giambologna, carved with a male head, survives in contrast with later 19th‑century work nearby. All of these components remain in situ, some restored at different times, and together they display the building’s sequence of medieval origins, Renaissance reworking and 19th‑century alteration.