Palazzo Ramirez de Montalvo, Renaissance palazzo in Borgo degli Albizi, Florence, Italy.
Palazzo Ramirez de Montalvo is a Renaissance palazzo on Borgo degli Albizi in Florence with a heavily ornamented facade. The surface features graffito work designed by Giorgio Vasari, displaying decorative scenes that celebrate the Spanish courtier's standing and ties to the Medici rulers.
Antonio Ramirez de Montalvo, personal chamberlain to Cosimo I and cupbearer to Eleonora di Toledo, bought the old houses of the Buonafé, Pazzi and Adimari between 1558 and 1564. Bartolomeo Ammannati designed the palace, built from the early 1560s and finished in 1568 under the direction of Alfonso Parigi the Elder. The Ramirez family kept it for about three centuries; in 1866 it passed to the Matteucci and was later divided into flats.
The main hall displays a wooden ceiling with coffered sections that echoes the design found in the Hall of the Five Hundred at Palazzo Vecchio. This decorative choice visually connects the spaces of two major Florentine palaces.
The palazzo stands on Borgo degli Albizi 26, where the facade is best seen from the street thanks to the open space opposite. The first floor now houses Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, the auction house founded in 1924, so interiors are generally seen only during viewings or sales. The building has been under architectural protection since 1936.
In the 18th century, Baron Filippo De Stosch rented the palazzo while posing as an antiquities collector, though he was actually conducting espionage work for England. His hidden role only came to light after his death, revealing that the building had served as an unlikely center for covert diplomatic operations.
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