Loggia dei Lanzi

Loggia dei Lanzi. Built in 1376-1382 in the Tuscan Gothic style. The loggia houses Roman and Renaissance sculptures. Piazza della Signoria. Historic Centre of Florence UNESCO World Heritage site. "In the S. angle of the piazza, in front of the Palazzo degli Uffizi (p. 483), rises the —"Loggia dei Lanzi, originally called Loggia dei Signori, a magnificent open vaulted hall of the kind with which it was usual to provide both the public and private palaces of Tuscany, designed in the present case for solemn ceremonies which it might be desirable to perform before the people. This structure was projected in 1356, having perhaps been designed by Orcagna, but was not erected till 1376-82. Benci di Cione and Simone di Francesco Talenti are said to have been the architects. Both the style of the architecture and the sculptures (Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance, and Fortitude), by Giov. d'Ambrogio and Jacopo di Piero (1383-87), exhibit an incipient leaning to Renaissance forms. The present name of the loggia dates from the time of the Grand-Duke Cosimo I, when his German spearmen or 'lancers' were posted here as guards".--Baedeker 1906. DSC_0221p1