Piazza della Signoria has
been the political heart of the city from
the Middle Ages to the present day. It is
a singular urbanistic creation that began
taking shape from 1268 onwards, when the Guelph
party gained control of the city again and
decided to raze the houses of their Ghibelline
rivals to the ground.
The first to be destroyed
were the towers belonging to the Foraboschi
and the Uberti families, in spite of the fact
that the head of the family (the famous Farinata
celebrated by Dante in his "Comedy"),
had defended the city from destruction after
its army had been disastrously defeated at
the battle of Montaperti (September 4th 1260)
by the Ghibelline coalition led by Siena.
In the end 36 houses were demolished which
explains the unusual "L" shape of
the square and why the buildings around it
are unaligned, all that remained after the
city's enemies had all been "wiped out"
(nothing was ever to be built on the site
again).
Its gets its name of course
from the most important monument there, Palazzo
della Signoria, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio
in 1298-99 (much of it already completed by
1302, only three years later) for the seat
of the Republican government and which was
later to host the Gonfalonier of Justice and
the Priors of the Arts (it was in fact at
first called Palazzo dei Priori).
