The Piazza from the XVII to the XX century

The interventions of restoration and recovery conducted in the 1800s and early 1900s often showed little respect for the square’s historical layout, as it had taken shape over the preceding centuries.

The XIX century indeed rejected the Baroque scenic design, instead proposing “historical authenticity.” The style that seemed to facilitate a “synthesis” of the earlier styles was the Gothic: the façade of the Duomo, executed between 1871 and 1884 by Emilio De Fabris and collaborators, was a noteworthy example.
Conceived after centuries of projects, the new façade influenced the square’s spatial appearance. The desire for large spaces that characterized all of nineteenth-century town-planning in Florence, also concerned Piazza del Duomo. It started in the 1820s with the construction of the new housing for canons, on a project by Gaetano Baccani, and ended in 1895 with the demolition of the Archbishop’s palace, the façade of which was reapplied to its secondary block, so as to separate the building from the Baptistery even more.