Palazzo dell'Antella, Renaissance palace in Piazza Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

Palazzo dell'Antella is a Renaissance palace on Piazza Santa Croce with an elaborately decorated facade. The entire front is covered with allegorical figures, cherubs, floral patterns, and ornamental designs arranged in multiple sections across several floors.

In the early 1600s, Senator Niccolò dell'Antella acquired the building and commissioned a major redesign. The architect Giulio Parigi unified several adjacent houses into a single cohesive structure at that time.

The frescoed panels were painted in just twenty working days between 1619 and 1620 by thirteen young artists under Giovanni da San Giovanni, among them Domenico Passignano, Matteo Rosselli and Ottavio Vannini. The programme, devised by Giulio Parigi, celebrates the Dell'Antella family and Medici rule, with the bust of Cosimo II above the doorway at number 21 as its centre.

The ground floor now hosts restaurants and shops that you can freely enter. The palace sits directly on a busy square, making it easy to view the entire facade from different angles.

The windows grow closer together as they approach the church of Santa Croce, an optical device that makes the facade appear larger than it is. Look for the marble disc dated 1565, which marked the boundary between the two teams' halves during Florentine football matches in the square.