Palace of Bianca Cappello

The Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, originally belonging to Corbinelli family is a Renaissance-style palace located on Via Maggio #26 of the quarter of Oltrarno in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is notable for its facade decoration, and once housing Bianca Cappello, the mistress, then wife of the Grand-Duke Francesco I de' Medici

The house, which was near the Grand-Duke's Palazzo Pitti, was acquired in 1566 and refurbished for Bianca Capello, who utilized the architectural work (1570–1574) of Bernardo Buontalenti. The palace was ceded by the Capello to the Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova, and soon thereafter (1579–1580) the facade graffito was decorated by Bernardino Poccetti. The palace later came into possession of the Riccardi family, then Carlo Lasinio, professor of the Florentine Accademia di Belle Arti. It now belongs to the Comune of Florence, who have made it the archive and laboratory of conservation of books of the Gabinetto Vieusseux.

Across the street is the Palazzo Ridolfi (Via di Maggio #13), designed by Santi di Tito. On the same side of the street is Palazzo Machiavelli (#16-18), now an Anglican church.

Text adapted from “Palazzo di Bianca Cappello” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Palace of Bianca Cappello ranks #4,112 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #309 of the 452 mapped in Italy. 15 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Florence, 1 km away. It is one of the 32 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Tuscany. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗