San Gallo Gate
Illustration from Corrado Ricci, Cento vedute di Firenze antica, Florence, Fratelli Alinari, 1906.
Former name(s)Porta San Gallo
LocationFlorence, Italy
Coordinates43°47′01″N 11°15′42″E / 43.78361°N 11.26167°E / 43.78361; 11.26167
NorthVia Madonna della Tosse
SouthVia San Gallo
Construction
Completion1327
Other
DesignerArnolfo di Cambio

The San Gallo Gate (Italian: Porta San Gallo) is part of the city walls of Florence and is located in Piazza della Libertà, opposite the Triumphal Arch.

History

The San Gallo Gate was begun according to the plans of Arnolfo di Cambio in 1284, but was not completed until 1327.[1] In the 13th century, it was one of the most heavily trafficked gates in the city, as it was the most northerly, connected to the road to Bologna.[2] On the gate, whose keys are still kept in the local history section of Palazzo Vecchio, an inscription recalls the foundation of the building in 1285 by the captain of the Guelph party Rolandino da Canossa, while another, later, celebrates the passage of King Frederick IV of Denmark in 1708, on his journey to Venice.[3] The exterior is decorated with Marzocco while the interior lunette contains traces of a fresco depicting the Madonna and saints.[4]

Just outside the door was the complex of the convent of San Gallo, the work of Giuliano da Sangallo, who got his nickname "da Sangallo" from this much-loved building. It was destroyed, along with many others, to clear the cannons from the walls in preparation for the siege of Florence (1529-1530).[5]

It is also outside this gate, in the stony bed of the Mugnone that served as a moat, that Calandrino's search for the Heliotrope (Boccaccio, Decameron VIII, 3) is set.[6]

It was also in this area of Porta San Gallo, outside the walls of Florence, that the Strozzi villa was located, which differed from the other houses in the area because it housed a group of courtesans - including Camilla Pisana - in the exclusive service of the master of the house, Filippo Strozzi, and his group of "giovani scapestrati".[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ Gardner, Edmund G. (18 October 2011). The Story of Florence. The Project Gutenberg EBook.
  2. ↑ Lonely Planet (2016). Toscane 8ed (in French). edi8. ISBN 978-2-8161-5707-9.
  3. ↑ Conoscere Venezia. "Alvise II Mocenigo. Doge CX. – Anni 1700-1709" (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  4. ↑ Ratté, Felicity (1999-01-01). "Architectural Invitations: Images of City Gates in Medieval Italian Painting". Gesta. 38 (2): 142–153. doi:10.2307/767186. ISSN 0016-920X. JSTOR 767186. S2CID 192771398.
  5. ↑ Kent, F. W. (1982). "New Light on Lorenzo de' Medici's Convent at Porta San Gallo". The Burlington Magazine. 124 (950): 292–294. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 880762.
  6. ↑ Martinez, Ronald (2003-01-01). "Calandrino and the Powers of the Stone: Rhetoric, Belief, and the Progress of Ingegno in Decameron VIII.3". Heliotropia. 1 (1): 1.
  7. ↑ Budin, Stephanie Lynn (2021-05-30). Freewomen, Patriarchal Authority, and the Accusation of Prostitution. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-51667-2.
  8. ↑ Pucci, Paolo (2011). "Camilla Pisana, la perfetta moglie?: tentativi di affermazione personale di una cortigiana del Rinascimento". Italica. 88 (4): 565–586. ISSN 0021-3020. JSTOR 41440474.
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