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

Every tourist who comes to Florence ends up by visiting the square outside the Uffizi Gallery. This is simply explained by the attraction of the wonderful paintings in the Gallery and partly to admire the original architecture of the palace itself, which Giorgio Vasari, commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici, completed in just five years (1560-65). This horse-shoe shaped palace, whose two wings stretch from Palazzo Vecchio to the Arno, that actually creates the square itself; the porticoes on the western side open off into Via Lambertesca, a narrow street that leads right into the heart of the oldest part of the city, the mediaeval area that Vasari partly demolished to make room for his new creation.

Mafia Car Bomb

In this area, a mafia car-bomb exploded on the night of May 27th 1993, on the corner between Via Lambertesca and Via dei Georgofili, killing five people and causing damage to the artistic heritage of Florence. The explosion damaged the upper rooms of the Uffizi and the ancient house and tower of the Pulci family, from 1932 seat of the historic Academy of the Georgofili, specialized in agricultural studies and conservation of the territory since 1753. The tremendous sight is still in the memory of the rescuers who arrived on the scene after the explosion and this time the small palace of the Georgofili, which had survived so many wars and floods, seemed to have suffered its death blow. One half of its facade had been totally destroyed: the explosion created a huge pit, about ten metres deep, that opened up in the interior, while the entire south wall, which faced onto the Courtyard of the Caldaie, was in danger of collapsing because it had been shifted 10 centimetres by the impact. The attic-flat that had been created at the top of the tower in the early 20th century had crashed to the ground, covering the bodies of the four people who lived in it: the caretaker of the Academy, her husband and their two little daughters, one aged nine and the other only two months. The fifth victim was a student who lived in the house opposite, which was also directly hit by the explosion.

Restoration

Florence has always replied to barbaric acts such as this by immediately getting on with repairing and rebuilding everything that has been damaged. Once the huge patrimony of books belonging to the Academy (50.000 volumes plus 4.000 essays from the archives of the Georgofili) had been carried away to safety and all the rubble removed, the walls still standing were reinforced and the ones that had been destroyed were reconstructed. Traditional techniques were combined with advanced technological solutions: the roof and bent tiles were made by hand, the corbels and capitals carved by Florentine craftsmen but use was also made of mortar injections, chains, steel plates and bolts. Great care was taken during restoration to ensure that the newly reconstructed areas of the building could be recognized from the original. Therefore a zig-zagging fracture line divides now the floor of the huge Assembly Hall on the first floor, to delimit the area that fell to the ground, and another line on the facade, a vertical one this time, divides the ancient decorated walls from the new. Two large canvases by the painter Bartolomeo Bimbi were irreparably damaged and had to be replaced.

Unexpected and Extrodinary Results

This catastrophe, however, led to some unexpected and extraordinary results, like the discovery of seven small rooms, which were once part of the State Archives, later walled up and forgotten and now available for the use of Academy of the Georgofili once more. Above all, it revealed the existence of a well and staircase system that leads up from the cellars to the upper floors and which probably is the last trace of the house that the Florentine land register of 1427 noted as being the property of Jacopo di Francesco de' Pulci and father of Luigi, a friend of Lorenzo Il Magnifico and author of the poem "Morgante". The house and tower still bear the name of the Pulci family even today, in spite of the fact that the building passed to the Gherardini family after 1433.
The well and the staircase that winds around it and reaches the top floor of the Uffizi Gallery are now free of the walls and plaster that once hid them; the grey stone archivolt and steps have been restored in order to form a single and harmonious unit with the various rooms of the Academy. Apart from being an unexpected reward for all those who worked on restoring the building, this discovery is yet another demonstration of Giorgio Vasari's skill in construction, as he managed to incorporate the ancient tower of the Pulci family into the revolutionary architecture of the Uffizi without destroying it.

The initial project included plans to expropriate and demolish at least 43 houses and towers in order to build the new palace of the "Uffici" or offices, but Cosimo de' Medici decided that this would be too expensive in the long run and therefore the most of the buildings were spared though they were eventually incorporated into the new construction. The Tower of the Pulci and the results of this extraordinary restoration work can be visited during the hours in which the Academy of the Georgofili is open to the public and that is from Mondays to Fridays, from 3.00pm to 6.30pm.

Florence had never been hit by the Mafia before. This attack caused death and destruction. And led to an unexpected discovery.

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