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The Discovery of a Well in the Tower of the Pulci in Florence

It is in fact this horse-shoe shaped palace,certain basic rules which were to ensure that
whose two wings stretch from Palazzo Vecchiothe newly reconstructed areas of the building
to the Arno, that actually creates the squarecould in some way be recognized from the
itself; the porticoes on the western sideoriginal. Therefore a zig-zagging fracture
open off into Via Lambertesca, a narrowline divides the floor of the huge Assembly
street that leads right into the heart of theHall on the first floor, to delimit the area
oldest part of the city, the mediaeval areathat fell to the ground, and another line on
that Vasari partly demolished to make roomthe facade, a vertical one this time, divides
for his new creation.It was here that thethe ancient decorated walls from the new. Two
mafia car-bomb exploded on the night of Maylarge canvases by the painter Bartolomeo
27th 1993, on the corner between ViaBimbi were unfortunately irreparably damaged
Lambertesca and Via dei Georgofili, killingand could be replaced. This catastrophe,
five people and causing damage to thehowever, led to some unexpected and
artistic heritage of Florence. The explosionextraordinary results, like the discovery of
seriously damaged the upper rooms of theseven small rooms, which were once part of
Uffizi and disembowelled the ancient housethe State Archives, later walled up and
and tower of the Pulci family beneath it,forgotten and now available for the use of
from 1932 the seat of the historic Academy ofAcademy of the Georgofili once more. Above
the Georgofili, specialized in agriculturalall it revealed the existence of a well and
studies and the conservation of the territorystaircase system that leads up from the
since 1753. The tremendous sight is still acellars to the upper floors and which
vivid memory for all the rescuers who firstprobably is the last trace of the house that
arrived on the scene after the explosion:the Florentine land register of 1427 noted as
this time the small palace of the Georgofili,being the property of Jacopo di Francesco de'
which had survived so many wars and floods,Pulci and father of Luigi, a friend of
seemed really to have suffered its deathLorenzo Il Magnifico and author of the poem
blow. One half of its facade (200 square"Morgante". The house and tower still bear
metres) had been completely destroyed,the name of the Pulci family even today, in
shattered in the explosion, a huge pit, aboutspite of the fact that the building appears
ten metres deep, had opened up in theto have passed to the Gherardini family after
interior, while the whole of the south wall,1433.The well and the staircase that winds
which faced onto the Courtyard of thearound it and reaches the top floor of the
Caldaie, was in danger of collapsing, becauseUffizi Gallery are now free of the walls and
it had been shifted 10 centimetres by theplaster that once hid them; the grey stone
impact. The attic-flat that had been createdarchivolt and steps have been restored in
at the top of the tower in the early 20thorder to form a single and harmonious unit
century had crashed to the ground, coveringwith the various rooms of the Academy. Apart
the bodies of the four people who lived in itfrom being an unexpected reward for all those
with rubble: the caretaker of the Academy,who worked on restoring the building, this
her husband and their two little daughters,discovery is yet another demonstration of
one aged nine and the other only two months.Giorgio Vasari's skill in construction, as he
The fifth victim was a student who lived inmanaged to incorporate the ancient tower of
the house opposite, which was also directlythe Pulci family into the revolutionary
hit by the explosion.Florence has alwaysarchitecture of the Uffizi without destroying
replied to barbaric acts such as this byit.
immediately getting on with mending her
wounds and rebuilding everything that hasIn fact the original project included plans
been damaged "as it was and where it was".to expropriate and demolish at least 43
Once the huge patrimony of books belonging tohouses and towers in order to build the new
the Academy (50.000 volumes plus 4.000 essayspalace of the "Uffici" or offices, but Cosimo
from the archives of the Georgofili) had beende' Medici decided that this would be far too
carried away to safety and all the rubbleexpensive in the long run and therefore the
removed, the walls that were still standingmost of the buildings were spared though they
were reinforced and the ones that had beenwere eventually incorporated into the new
destroyed were reconstructed. Traditionalconstruction. The Tower of the Pulci and the
techniques were combined with advancedresults of this extraordinary restoration
technological solutions: the roof and bentwork can be visited daily during the hours in
tiles were made by hand, the corbels andwhich the Academy of the Georgofili is open
capitals carved by Florentine craftsmen butto the public and that is from Mondays to
use was also made of mortar injections,Fridays, from 3.00pm to 6.30pm.Alberto
chains, steel plates and bolts. Great careScarsi is Chief Editor at : Your source for
was taken during restoration to keep toaccommodations in Florence, Italy.



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