Palazzo Corsi-Tornabuoni, Renaissance palazzo in Via Tornabuoni, Florence, Italy
Palazzo Corsi-Tornabuoni is a Renaissance building on Via Tornabuoni with elaborately designed facades, large windows, and decorative details extending across multiple stories. Today it houses residential units and private spaces that maintain the structure's original elegance and grandeur.
Giovanni Tornabuoni merged the family's houses into one large residence between 1466 and 1469, probably on a design by Michelozzo, as Vasari stated. The Tornabuoni were related to the Medici, since Lorenzo the Magnificent's mother was Lucrezia Tornabuoni. Around 1540 Lorenzo di Piero Ridolfi bought the house and added a loggia in the courtyard under the supervision of Tribolo. In 1864 the municipality cut back the facades by six and a half metres, and Telemaco Buonaiuti rebuilt them, giving the palace its present form.
The Tornaquinci changed their surname to Tornabuoni to be eligible for public office. Marquis Jacopo Corsi gathered Florence's first Accademia di Musica here, and in 1594 the first performance of La favola di Dafne, with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, took place in the palace; a plaque on via de' Corsi records it. On the ground floor, the Procacci delicatessen, founded by Leopoldo Procacci in 1885 and owned by the Antinori company since 1998, keeps its 1920s furnishings and sells truffle specialities.
The building sits on central Via Tornabuoni, accessible through the pedestrian zones of the old town between Piazza della Repubblica and nearby landmarks. Its location makes it easy to reach from most of Florence's main attractions.
A plaque on Via de' Corsi records that Jacopo Corsi's music academy gave the first performance of La favola di Dafne here in 1594, an event often cited as the birth of Italian melodrama. The Cigoli loggia was dismantled and rebuilt beside the church of San Gaetano during the 1864 street works.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,788 contributors worldwide.