A part of Florence that no longer exists, completely changed over time. If the first two Alinari photos attached to “la Repubblica” showed a city that was certainly transformed and disappeared, but still recognizable, the third one projects us into a world that has completely disappeared, handed down to the present day thanks to books and precisely to photo. After the first release on April 20, with a photo of the Ponte alle Grazie, dating back to the second half of the nineteenth century, the characteristic houses of the cloistered nuns still insisted on the pylons when you arrive as “Murate”, and that of April 27 with the ancient face of the Duomo, before the neo-Gothic style facade was built, according to the project by Emilio de Fabris, with whom we know it today, next Wednesday May 4th will touch Piazza della Fonte, inside the Jewish ghetto, which once stood in quadrilateral which today includes piazza della Repubblica, via Roma, via dei Pecori and via Brunelleschi and which was demolished between 1885 and 1895 for the creation of piazza della Repubblica.

In the center of the photo we find a well, from which the square took its name and which is located approximately in correspondence with the current Via dei Tosinghi. The Ghetto was built in 1571 by Cosimo I de ‘Medici who commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti to do the work, who closed many alleys, reorganized the internal spaces and built all around an enclosure with only three entrances equipped with iron gates which closed closed in the evening by guards at midnight and from which no one could get out. In 1704 it was then enlarged to include the area up to piazza dell’Olio and via de ‘Pecori.

Cathedral without facade: the 1880 Alinari photo as a gift with Repubblica

by Elisabetta Berti

April 24, 2022

The third of the four episodes of the “Florence to remember” initiative will also be distributed free of charge as an attachment to the newspaper at newsstands in the provinces of Florence and Prato. Four episodes for four weeks in which Repubblica gives readers as many images from the archives of the Alinari Foundation for photography, which tell of a Florence that no longer exists. The initiative was made possible thanks to the support of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze Foundation (main supporter), Coop. Fi, Chamber of Commerce of Florence, Artigiancredito, Toscana Aeroporti and Firenze Fiera. On Wednesday 11 May there will be the last release, with what represents a magical moment for Florence, when it snows in the city. The photo does not have a certain date, but perhaps it documents the snowfall that whitened Florence in 1904, still remembered as the earliest in the city. In fact, an October occurred. The shoveling piles and the grutti of haggard citizens totally in a whitewashed surreal atmosphere.