KNIGHTS’ SQUARE, Carovana Palace - Ai Voice

The Palace of the Carovana is a magnificent example of Renaissance architecture, designed by the architect Giorgio Vasari between 1562 and 1564.
The building was constructed to serve as the headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen, a military and religious order founded in 1561 by Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici with the mission of defending the Mediterranean from pirate incursions and promoting the Catholic faith.

Take a moment to admire the building’s striking façade, richly decorated with graffiti depicting allegorical figures and zodiac signs.
In 1564, after the Medici and St. Stephen coats of arms were placed on the front, it was decided to cover the entire façade with a sgraffito design — a technique highly fashionable during the Medici era. It involved applying two layers of plaster in contrasting colors, then incising the upper layer to reveal the hue beneath. The overall decorative program was conceived by Giorgio Vasari, assisted by three leading Florentine humanists — Pier Vettori, Benedetto Varchi, and Vincenzo Borghini — to celebrate the new political and chivalric order established by Cosimo I.

The actual execution of the work was entrusted to the painters Tommaso di Battista del Verrocchio and Alessandro Forzori da Arezzo.
Much of what you see today, however, is not original: large portions of the decoration were reconstructed during early 20th-century restorations, when the deteriorated areas were re-created based on Vasari’s original design.

Above the elaborate entrance portal, you can spot the marble busts of Cosimo I — the founder — and his successors, along with the coat of arms of the Order, recalling the building’s centuries-long role as both administrative and residential headquarters.
Inside, the palace was once richly decorated, with grand halls, frescoed ceilings, and opulent furnishings.

After the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen was dissolved in 1859, the palace was repurposed as the home of the Scuola Normale Superiore, one of Italy’s most prestigious academic institutions.

Let me leave you with an interesting fact: among the alumni of the Scuola Normale in Pisa are some of the greatest Italian figures of the 20th century — including three Nobel laureates (Enrico Fermi and Carlo Rubbia for Physics, and Giosuè Carducci for Literature) and two Presidents of the Italian Republic, Giovanni Gronchi and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.