Palazzo della Borsa — Florence Chamber of Commerce – Virtual Tour 360°

At a glance

Type

Institutional palace: chamber of commerce, exchange and bank

Built

1858–1860, under Grand Duke Leopold II

Architects

Michelangelo Maiorfi (design); facade redrawn by Emilio De Fabris

Later works

Ugo Giusti (1914–1915), Ezio Cerpi (1931–1933), Italo Gamberini (1950s), Pier Luigi Spadolini (early 1970s)

Address

Piazza dei Giudici 3, on Lungarno Generale Diaz; side fronts on Via de’ Saponai and Piazza Mentana 2

Coordinates

43.76757° N, 11.25650° E · Google Maps

Current use

Headquarters of the Camera di Commercio di Firenze

Overview

The palace occupies a whole block on the right bank of the Arno, a few steps east of the Uffizi and of the Museo Galileo, which shares Piazza dei Giudici with it. It was built to bring three institutions under one roof: the Chamber of Commerce, the commodity exchange and the Banca Nazionale Toscana. The river front is the one most visitors see, from the opposite bank or from Ponte alle Grazie.

History

Until the mid-nineteenth century the site held the tiratoio of Piazza d’Arno, also called “delle Travi” or “de’ Castellani”: an industrial building of the Arte della Lana where woollen cloth was stretched and dried. When the old guilds were dissolved, much of the wool guild’s property passed to the Chamber of Commerce, and the area was chosen for its new seat.

Construction began in 1858 under Grand Duke Leopold II and was finished in 1860. The young architect Michelangelo Maiorfi drew the project; the facade was then redesigned by Emilio De Fabris, the academician later known for the neo-Gothic front of Florence Cathedral.

The twentieth century changed the inside more than the outside. In 1914–1915 Ugo Giusti opened the entrance on Piazza dei Giudici and created an atrium that had not existed before, decorated by Galileo Chini with wall paintings of Agriculture and Commerce. In 1931–1933 Ezio Cerpi raised the roof to add a second floor and built a double-height hall for the stock exchange on the Piazza Mentana side, overlooked on three sides from the first floor. Italo Gamberini renewed the entrance hall in the 1950s, and Pier Luigi Spadolini designed a new auditorium in the early 1970s.

Two restoration campaigns followed, in 2003–2005 and 2012–2018. The second brought Chini’s paintings, long hidden, back to view, and uncovered an old well used for dyeing cloth and a furnace for treating wool: traces of the tiratoio beneath the palace.

What you see

From the river the building reads as two long, plain wings joined by a projecting portico. Its columns carry a triangular pediment, and the whole front sits on the embankment wall above the water. The smooth plastered surfaces date from the 1930s works. Behind the low roofline the tower of Palazzo Vecchio rises almost directly above the portico, which makes this stretch of the Arno one of the most photographed.

Inside, the stock exchange hall of the 1930s, lit from above, and the Chini atrium are the two spaces that carry the building’s later history.

Practical information

Access

A working public institution: offices are open for Chamber business, and the halls are used for conferences and events. Check the Chamber’s website for public events.

Best view

The river front, from the opposite bank (Lungarno Torrigiani) or from Ponte alle Grazie.

Getting there

The palace is in the historic centre, next to the Uffizi and five minutes on foot from Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio. Santa Maria Novella station is about 20 minutes away on foot. The centre is a limited traffic zone (ZTL): park outside it and walk.

Sources & resources

• Camera di Commercio di Firenze — Le sedi nella storia
• Repertorio delle Architetture Civili di Firenze — Palazzo della Camera di Commercio
• Palazzo della Borsa (Firenze) — Wikipedia
• Camera di Commercio di Firenze — official website