The Obelisks of the Corsa dei Cocchi, or Aguglie di Piazza Santa Maria Novella are two 16th-century, four-sided, marble obelisk monuments located in the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek term 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic; that is, they consist of a single stone. Most modern obelisks are made of several stones; some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings.
Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants (2013). The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).
The obelisks replaced two pyramidal wooden structures used to mark the margins of the track used in a festival race, Palio dei Cocchi, held the day before the day of San Giovanni. The present obelisks were designed in 1570 by Bartolomeo Ammannati, with the help of the stonemasons Raffaello and Giovanni Maria Carli. The idea for the four turtles, upon which the marble obelisks perch, has more recently been attributed to Giambologna or his pupil, Pietro Tacca. The obelisks were transported from the quarries to Florence in 1572. They were finally erected in 1608 to celebrate the marriage of the Grand Duke Cosimo II to Maria Maddalena of Austria. In the early 1790s, the obelisk underwent refurbishment, adding the bronze Florentine Fleur-de-lis or lily symbol, the giglio, on the top and adding the polished breccia marble plaques to the base. The current plates are made of red Levanto marble. [1]
Bartolomeo Ammannati was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo.
Giambologna — — was a Flemish sculptor based in Italy, celebrated for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.
Pietro Tacca was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity.
The conceit of turtle bases was originally used in the Boboli Obelisk.
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.
Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated just across from the main railway station named after it. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.
Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.
The Piazza dei Miracoli, formally known as Piazza del Duomo, is a walled 8.87-hectare area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important centre of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. Considered sacred by the Catholic Church, its owner, the square is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Campanile, and the Camposanto Monumentale. Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is also the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito, which houses the Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum.
Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of the major churches of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers in Rome, Italy. The church's name derives from the fact that the first Christian church structure on the site was built directly over the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva.
Domenico Fontana was an Italian architect of the late Renaissance, born in today's Ticino. He worked primarily in Italy, at Rome and Naples.
Firenze Santa Maria Novella or Stazione di Santa Maria Novella is a terminus railway station in Florence, Italy. The station is used by 59 million people every year and is one of the busiest in Italy.
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.
The Villa Celimontana is a villa on the Caelian Hill in Rome, best known for its gardens. Its grounds cover most of the valley between the Aventine Hill and the Caelian.
Santa Maria dei Servi is a Roman Catholic basilica in Bologna, Italy.
Piazza del Duomo is located in the heart of the historic center of Florence, . It is one of the most visited places in Europe and the world and in Florence, the most visited area of the city. The square contains the Florence Cathedral with the Cupola del Brunelleschi, the Giotto's Campanile, the Florence Baptistery, the Loggia del Bigallo, the Opera del Duomo Museum, and the Arcivescovile and Canonici's palace. The west zone of this square is called Piazza San Giovanni.
Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai (1403–1481) was a member of a wealthy family of wool merchants in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. He held political posts under Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici, but is principally remembered for building Palazzo Rucellai, for his patronage of the S. Sepolcro chapel and of the marble façade of the church of Santa Maria Novella, and as author of the Zibaldone. He was the father of Bernardo Rucellai (1448–1514) and grandfather of Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1475–1525).
La Palazzina Reale of Santa Maria Novella is a modern, white marble palace built in a sleek Fascist-style, located along via Valfonda and Via Berardi, adjacent to the main Train Station at Santa Maria Novella in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. Built in 1934-1935 to house the royal family on their visits to Florence; after recent refurbishment, the building since 2015 houses the Casa dell'Architettura di Firenze.
The Complesso di San Firenze is a 17th-century Baroque-style building, consisting of a church, palace, and former oratory, located on the southeast corner of the saucer-shaped piazza of San Firenze, located in the quartiere of Santa Croce in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The buildings were commissioned by the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri.
The Obelisk of the Fallen in the Wars of Independence in the Piazza dell'Unità Italiana, once called the Piazza Vecchia di Santa Maria Novella, is a monument located in the piazza just east of the apse of Santa Maria Novella, surrounded by large hotels and offices located near the main train station in Florence, Italy.
The Monument to Carlo Goldoni is a white marble outdoor statue inaugurated in 1873 to commemorate the Venetian dramatist. The monument is located in a piazza of the same name, formerly called Piazza delle Travi, in front of Ponte alla Carraia, in the quartiere of Santa Maria Novella of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The name of the piazza, which had reflected a postern leading to a port in the Arno River for wood barges, was renamed in 1907 on the 200th anniversary of Goldoni's birth.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Florence: