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....