Hello Marronaia Friends! This week together with Paola’s Florence Tours – Paola Migliorini we visited the historical house Palazzo Viti, one of the most beautiful in town!
The construction was begun towards the end of the 16th century by the noble from VOLTERRA Attilio Incontri, minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The design of the façade, by Bartolomeo Ammannati, is of considerable artistic interest, highlighting the period of transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque: it anticipates many elements of the second, with the richness and grandeur of the ashlar, without losing the plastic harmony of the Renaissance buildings.
The arrival of the Viti family
In 1850 Benedetto Giuseppe Viti, an alabaster merchant, bought the rest of the building that is still inhabited by his descendants, completing the construction of the second floor, still missing the vaults, and decorating it according to the taste of the time with a prevalence of grotesques on the times and with the fake wallpaper or stencil on the walls. This decoration, largely well preserved, and the original furniture constitutes one of the most essential and complete examples of a nineteenth-century stately home. To this must be added a collection of ancient alabasters, including the monumental candelabra commissioned by Maximilian of Habsburg emperor of Mexico, the inlaid tables, and a vibrant and important collection of Chinese and oriental objects of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rest is made up of fine Italian furniture and an exceptional picture gallery from the 15th-19th centuries.
Other interventions were made on the occasion of the visit of King Vittorio Emanuele II in 1861.
The palace is now a house museum, where works of art, furnishings, alabaster chandeliers, antiques, and many books, even rare ones, are exhibited. All these objects belonged to Benedetto Giuseppe Viti. The palace is open for tourist visits from April to November.
source