Palazzo Strozzi in Florence a timeless jewel

Palazzo Strozzi has three grandiose identical portals facing Via Tornabuoni and Piazza Strozzi. The palace was commissioned by Filippo Strozzi, a rich merchant belonging to one of the most powerful families in Florence and traditionally hostile to the Medici family. Due to the opposition to the Medici, the Strozzi family was expelled from Florence in 1434, but thanks to the prestige achieved by the Strozzi, in particular by Filippo as a banker in Naples, the family was able to return to the city in 1466. Filippo was truly obsessed by Medici family and therefore decided to raise a building that was larger, taller and more monumental than the Medici's florentine residence. Filippo had to destroy a dozen buildings that were located in the area where his palace was built

The Strozzi family was one of the oldest and most powerful families. It became very rich thanks to financial activity and with the opening of numerous banks in Europe. The members of the family were mostly politicians and some military leaders. In fact, unlike many noble families of the period, the Strozzi family had very few clergymen.

Palazzo Strozzi is an ideal representation of the Italian Renaissance building. It was voluntarily built of a larger size than the palace belonging to the Medici from which he copied the cubic shape developed on three floors surrounded by a central courtyard. The works were started in 1489 but after only two years its client, Filippo Strozzi, died. His heirs laboriously continued the work and in 1507 the ground floor of the building began to be inhabited. After various interruptions in the works due to the fluctuating economic conditions of the Strozzi family, the project ended in 1538 by Baccio d'Agnolo who also took care of the furnishings and interior spaces, leaving the incomplete cornice on one side, still visible today. The Palace has rectangular windows on the ground floor . On the upper floors we find two orders of mullioned windows, a type of rectangular windows divided centrally by a small column or pillar on which two arches rest. In the Renaissance period, Piazza Strozzi was intended for the use of the sale of food products. The activity of the food market left a lot of dirt in the square facing the palace every day; this did not help the Strozzi family in their battle to affirm their power and prestige.

The house belonged to the Strozzi until 1937 when it was bought by the National Insurance Institute and later sold to the state around 1999.

Today, the Palazzo hosts many interesting exhibitions.