Bargello - Florence, Italy
Posted by: razalas
N 43° 46.210 E 011° 15.470
32T E 681719 N 4848823
The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, or Palazzo del Popolo (Palace of the People) is a former barracks and prison, now an art museum, in Florence, Italy.
Waymark Code: WMJ9DB
Location: Toscana, Italy
Date Posted: 10/14/2013
Views: 13
"The museum is located in the medieval palace built for the Captain of the People, which in the Medici age became the headquarters of the Bargello (the chief of police), serving also as a prison. In the 19th century the palace was restored and turned into a museum, mainly of Renaissance sculpture."
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"Construction began in 1255. The palace was built to house first the Capitano del Popolo and later, in 1261, the 'podestà', the highest magistrate of the Florence City Council. This Palazzo del Podestà, as it was originally called, is the oldest public building in Florence. This austere crenellated building served as model for the construction of the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1574, the Medici dispensed with the function of the Podestà and housed the bargello, the police chief of Florence, in this building, hence its name. It was employed as a prison; executions took place in the Bargello's yard until they were abolished by Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1786, but it remained the headquarters of the Florentine police until 1859. When Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor Peter Leopold was exiled, the makeshift Governor of Tuscany decided that the Bargello should no longer be a jail, and it then became a national museum."
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