Granaio dell'Abbondanza, Historic granary in Oltrarno district, Florence, Italy.
The Granaio dell'Abbondanza is a storage building with a square fortress-like form located in the Oltrarno district of Florence. Its thick walls and fortified appearance reflect how valuable grain was to the city and how seriously it needed to be guarded.
The building was constructed in 1695 under the direction of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici and architect Giovanni Battista Foggini to replace an older grain storage facility. Its construction required demolishing a previous warehouse and reshaping the urban layout of the area.
The Medici coat of arms displayed on the exterior shows how the family controlled the city's grain supply and therefore its survival. These symbols remind visitors that feeding a population was as much a sign of power as military strength.
The building currently houses a programming school and a startup studio, so visitors may find access limited depending on the activity inside. It is an active workspace rather than a museum open to the public on regular schedules.
After serving as a grain storage facility, the building was repurposed as a military bakery and later as a place where soldiers received their draft notices. This series of transformations reveals how buildings adapt to the changing needs of each era.
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