The Vasari Corridor: Exploration of secret passageways in Florence, Italy

The MSA Travel Awards 2012

The Vasari Corridor Exploration of secret passageways in Florence, Italy Christina Hristova Lipcheva

A good secret is the key to every heart. Some people like things that others do not, what is amusing for one may be truly boring for another. But as I believe, what conquers us all are secrets: the mysterious, unknown, unexplored, inexplicable, foreign, undefined matters having some sort of a magnetic pull that is almost impossible to resist. Sometimes they completely take over our mind, make us restlessly and rigorously search for the answers, go far figuratively and then literary travel thousands of miles to get to “the bottom of the story.”

It was a secret that brought me to architecture: the silent facades of the city, the shield of the neatly finished floors and ceilings, hiding the intricate mysterious and hidden mechanisms of their existence and meaning. It is no surprise then that what made me want to visit Florence was not the extensive art collection at the Uffizi, be it one of the most famous in the world; or the numerous exceptional architectural sites around the city; or the temptation that Italian food always is...

It was one of Florence’s most famous secrets: The Vasari Corridor, a secret passageway that stretches half a mile across the city.

The Vasari Corridor (Corridorio Vasariano in Italian) bears the name of its architect - Giorgio Vasari, who was one of the main architects in the Medicean court during the time of Cosimo I. The Medici, a wealthy banking family were the ruling dynasty in Florence for three centuries. Cosimo I was the first to be given the ducal title, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the 16th century after his conquest of Sienna. The acquisition of vast new territories lead to many administrative and governmental changes, as well as many changes in the urban fabric of the city with the construction of new buildings, one of which was the Uffizi.i,iv The corridor was built during that time, officially commissioned for the wedding of Cosimo’s

son Francesco to Giovanna of Austria, the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II, as an important part of the hundreds of other timber and papier mâchÊ structures, temporary buildings, sculptures and decorations created to impress the prestigious visitors.iv,v I started my travels fully prepared to be impressed as well.

Soon after my arrival in Florence I found out that the secret passageway was not that much of a secret: the corridor is inconspicuously visible throughout the urban fabric the city for most of its length. It starts with an unobstructed doorway in the Camera Verde of the Palazzo Vecchio, the old palace in the heart of the city centre, and then crosses Via della Nina on an arch to enter the second floor of the Uffizi. This section of the corridor is not part of the tourist route which starts in the gallery. From the Uffizi it transcends via a barrel vaulted stairwell, passes through the piano nobile of a medieval house and then crosses Via Lugarno deglo Archibusieri on a second arch. From this point, it is runs along the river Arno, completely

exposed on a series of barrel vaults and piers pierced by transverse vaults.iv This part of the corridor is known as the North Arm and it is the most visible from the outside. Its Roman aqueduct character is a structural solution to the height of the passageway and the considerable wind forces along the river for which simple columnar support would not have sufficed.iv At the meeting point of Lugarno deglo Achibusieri and Ponte Vecchio, the corridor turns left and follows the east side of the bridge, passing on top of the pre-existing shops which determined its height. At the end it manoeuvres around the old medieval tower of the Manelli family on beccatelli - stone brackets. This feature is derived from the traditions of medieval Florentine architecture which often employs sporti - projections from buildings into the streets and public squares.iv The Vasari Corridor then crosses Via dei Bardi on another arch and from here it follows old alleyways more or less parallel to Via Dè Guicciardini towards the church of Santa Felicita where it passes in front of it, creating the present day loggia-like facade which before the corridor was just a plain wall.iv The

Above: View of the corridor from the second floor of the Uffizi showing the arch over Via Lugarno deglo Archibusieri in the front, the North Arm and Ponte Vecchio, the most visible and imposing sections of the passageway

Above: View of the Ponte Vecchio section of the Vasari Corridor, taken from the bridge of Santa Trinita.

The photo shows the three arches of the corridor in the middle of the bridge and the large windows installed by Mussolini.

corridor also opens into the inside of the church on a private elevated balcony above the entrance. It finally continues its way towards Palazzo Pitti, the garden palace of the Medici, where it terminates adjacent to the Bountalenti’s grotto in the Boboli gardens.

Leaving the tour and making my way back to the city centre, I walked naturally following the corridor’s route, as it was built along the most direct and easy way between the two palaces.

Observing it now as an “outsider,” I couldn’t help but miss the experience of walking inside it as I was tracing its route and noticing the windows from which just minutes ago I was looking down at the little “outsiders” figures. I felt now very special for having been in the corridor: it was like I had just gotten out of a very expensive car, or better yet: like I have just come out from platform 9 3/4 and was making my way out of King’s Cross among all the muggles. There was really something special and secretive about the Vasari Corridor, which made me hopeful because otherwise, I must admit, it failed all my

prejudiced expectations: the corridor was not a secret in itself - everybody knew about it, and they have known about it ever since it was build. Moreover, it is not a structure of remarkable architectural detail, especially when it is immediately and inevitably compared to other marvellous and unique works of architecture in Florence. The Vasari Corridor is above all a raised passageway that is an undecorated, utilitarian building.

The design motives were not all visual and aesthetic: the corridor seeks the most direct, level connection between two places, it was commissioned for the function it needed to perform.iv Vasari was limited in the expressive possibilities by tradition and time as well, as the corridor was designed and built in the shockingly short period of six months.iv Nevertheless, its construction required wit, ingenuity and very smart planning as the corridor had to coalesce with the fabric of the city.i,iv Here Vasari did a truly outstanding job as the corridor had little if any effect on the urban development of Florence and there were almost no objections to its construction even though it passed through numerous properties not owned by Cosimo

the corridor made me feel a lot more claustrophobic, than the enclosed secret passageway, bustling with Florentines in a hurry to get somewhere, tourists slowly waddling in all directions, Italians on scooters, cars and delivery trucks, never intended to pass through those narrow medieval streets, souvenir stands in the way of everything else... Moreover, this description doesn’t even cover half of it, the noise and lack of air and the feast of all other sensory experiences that the above scene presents. I guess, sensuously, things have not changed that much since the time of the Medici when Florence was a leading city state in Italy. It must have been the same or at least similar experiences of its streets that lead Cosimo to the construction of the Vasari Corridor - an elevated street, secret in the sense that it was limited to the use by an exclusive group of people. Thus, it provided an escape from the chaos of the public circulation. The enclosed, elevated corridor was a secret of defence that guarded the family from all types of unpleasant sensory experiences of the exterior city landscape on the route between their residential garden palace and the seat of government in the city centre palace. The Ponte Vecchio bridge, for example, used to be a busy, narrow place of active trade during the time of Cosimo. Both sides of the bridge were lined with tanneries and butcher shops for which the river was a naturally convenient place for disposing of waste products.v The stench must have been unbearable as even provided with the exclusive passageway, Cosimo’s son banned the butchers from Ponte Vecchio and replaced them with goldsmiths, a trade that continues to be traditionally linked with the bridge.iii,v

Above: Inside the corridor.

Left: An illustrated axonometric view of the of the corridor’s route through the city.

I.i,iv The integration of the corridor and the city can be seen at its most imposing section, the North Arm. Its rugged simplicity and aqueduct-like appearance suggest Roman utilitarian architecture yet the effect is not Roman in the end: the large smooth plaster surfaces, the strapwork around the arches and piers, the bull’s-eye windows all link to the simplicity and delicacy of the 14th century Florentine architecture.iv However, the true value and meaning of the Vasari corridor is not expressed visually or as a visual secret. It contains a multitude of secrets that apply to other sensory and physical dimensions of the experience of the passageway.

But it is not necessarily a sensory inconvenience that the secret of the corridor was defending the Medici against. While I was only worried for someone nicking my purse with all my documents, money, phones and camera, I would bet Cosimo I had more at stake, walking in the openness of streets and public piazzas, even if accompanied by an assembly of guards.

The Vasari Corridor was an architectural shield, a secret of protection that has left physical marks on its design. While both elevations of the corridor are lined with windows, wherever its walls are exposed to the outside, the eastern side has larger square windows and the western - small, bull’s-eye ones, covered with grates, despite their size. Cosimo and his family obviously had reasons to fear being in contact with their citizens and they needed the corridor as a secret to guard them.

The first and most immediate experience when I entered it was the airiness, silence, spaciousness, which was quite opposite to my expectations of a secret corridor that I commonly associated with dark narrow tunnels, cave-like spaces and possible crawling on four legs. However, after spending the morning rambling through the packed streets of Florence, I felt quite the opposite spatial transition. The streets below

However, there is another type of secret that the corridor contains and it is much more evocative and alluring, it is the one that truly captures the hearts with romanticism. The secret that gives the person who is a part of it power. Even I felt powerful walking in the corridor, looking over people’s heads in the busy streets below. It may very well be all about height, the distance one is from the ground. We see this in the market values of

Left: Different window sizes on the east and west elevations of the corridor.

those high-rise top floor apartments in major cities around the globe, in the accommodation of the most expensive suites of a hotel on its last levels. Does one feel superior to others by simply being physically elevated above their level? I go in my mind through my “high-level” architectural experiences and I must agree that this could very well be true and that I see an example of it in the corridor as well. I guess this is how Cosimo and the rest of the Medici family felt while using their secret passageway. The large windows on the east elevation gave them splendid views of the river Arno and of the city - their city, while the small bull’s-eye windows allowed for an incognito means of spying on the people below, looking at their small figures from their elevated position of autocratic superiority.

Much after their time, another ruler enjoyed the power that the secret of the Vasari Corridor gives. Musolini often invited Hitler to have their meetings in the corridor in the part just above Ponte Vecchio, where Musolini replaced the smaller square windows in the middle of the west elevation with larger ones,

giving magnificent view towards the bridge of Santa Trinita, the city and of course, the swarm of little human figures below.iii Another example of the ways in which the corridor was an empowering secret that is introverted in contrast to the above examples which are all extroverted, is the small balcony inside the church of Santa Felicita. Much like a gallery in the opera, it gave the Medici family a private and elevated platform from which to attend to their religious duties without necessarily having to mingle with the public.iv Even before God, I guess, not all were equal.

The Vasari Corridor is a secret connected with power, exclusivity and superiority that continues to the present days.

The tour of the corridor is called il peligroso dei prince, in English “the path of the prince,” which from its very name gives you the sense of power and royalty. And then this feeling is aggravated when you start buying tickets for the tour which turns out to be a rather hard thing to do. After being closed for

Above:View from the centre of the Ponte Vecchio section of the Vasari Corridor towards the bridge of Santa Trinita.

many years, with the exception for scholars and researchers, the corridor was finally opened to the public in 2010. Tours seemed to have been carried on a regular schedule for some time but by July 2012 when I went things had changed.

What was supposed to be a quick online check or an online booking of a ticket at most, turned out as a day of internet research to find out how to get on a tour in the Vasari Corridor.

Websites were contradicting, not updated, mostly in Italian.

In all the chaos of the information, what I understood was that the corridor was still an exclusive secret passageway in a way: viewings were limited, prearranged and availability of dates and times unreliable. But before everything else, it was expensive: a single ticket cost around 100 EUR, or the equivalent of around 80 GBP. In comparison, the entry ticket for the Uffizi gallery is 19 EUR. The exclusivity of the Vasari Corridor, once reserved for the rulers of Florence was now being translated into our modern times as an expensive secret that not everybody could buy into. These circumstances could do nothing else but make my desire to visit the passageway

even more: it was a good enough, hard-enough to get to secret to capture my heart completely.

The secrets of the Vasari Corridor may not be visual, its value may not be found in its architectural details and materialization.

It is a passageway very well known by Florentines and internationally famous; however, there is a reason why people still refer to it as a secret. The corridor is an exclusive space that presents the person allowed to inhabit it with a secret that offers both defence and protection from unpleasant sensory experiences of the exterior urban environment as well as an empowering sense of superiority over the city, its streets and the people occupying them by the simple physical elevation to a higher level. The key word here is allowed: not everyone is permitted inside and this becomes the ultimate secretive power that conquers the outsider, that completely takes over his mind, makes him restlessly and rigorously search for the answers, go far figuratively and then literary travel thousands of miles to Florence to get to “the bottom of the story.�

Left: The balcony inside the church of Santa Felicita

Right: View from one of the bull’seye windows of the section of the corridor at the Manelli tower.

(i) Goy, R. J. (2002). Florence: the city and its architecture.

London, UK: Phaidon. (ii)Kauffmann, G., Küstner, E., & Underwood, J. A. (1971).

Florence, art treasures and buildings. London, UK: Phaidon. (iii)Quilici, B. (Director). (2009). Secrets of Florence [Motion picture]. United States: National Geographic Channel. (iii)Reavis, A. (2010, April 17). Tuscan Traveler’s Tale – Vasari Corridor is Open to All (Not!). Souce: <http://tuscantraveler. com/2010/florence/vasari-corridor-percorso-principe/> [Accessed: August 2012] (iv)Satkowski, L. (1979). Studies on Vasari’s Architecture. New York, NY: Garland Publishing. (v)Wirtz, R. C., & Manenti, C. (2009). Florence. Königswinter: H.f. ullmann.