Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori, Renaissance palace in Santa Croce Square, Florence, Italy.
Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori is a palace situated on Santa Croce Square in Florence that showcases Renaissance design through its three-story arched openings and refined stone construction. The facade is framed by sturdy stone columns from the 14th century that support the stacked arcades on each level.
The palace stands on 14th-century houses of the Peruzzi family, bought by the Cocchi in 1463 and rebuilt in its present form between 1485 and 1490, probably for the jurist Antonio Cocchi. It stayed with the Cocchi, from 1612 Cocchi Donati, until the line died out in 1769, then passed to the Pucci, Serristori, Caselli and Agostini Venerosi della Seta. The city rented it from 1893 for the Niccolò Tommaseo elementary school and bought it in 1913, keeping the school until 1986.
The palace contains an internal private chapel with period frescoes and an eighteenth-century staircase decorated by artists Atanasio Bimbacci, Dionisio Predellini, and Giuseppe Collignon.
The building now serves as an administrative office and sits directly across from the Santa Croce church on the square. It functions as a working government space, so access is limited, but the exterior merits attention when visiting the surrounding area.
A hinge of the old Porta San Simone, part of Florence's 1173–1175 walls, is still set into the palace wall on via dell'Anguillara. The small exit door onto that street, in the council committee room, inspired an episode of the comic Dylan Dog.
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