Florence, 19 June 2024 – Reopens to the public the Fort of San Giorgio, better known as Fort Belvederethe fortress that overlooks the city from above and that from June 25th, a few days after the Florentine Grand Depart of the Tour de France, will be open to visitors again. The external spaces of the Fort, including the two terraces of the Palazzina Medicea, they will be open free of charge from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm (closed on Mondays for weekly rest) thanks to the valorisation proposal offered by the Florentine Civic Museums and MUS.E. Furthermore, every Friday and Sunday at 5pm and 6.30pm, it will be possible to participate in the guided tours which will allow you to understand the salient features of the history of the fortress and more generally of the sixteenth-century architecture (reservation required).
It will thus be possible to appreciate the history and spaces of Forte San Giorgio, whose construction began in 1590 at the behest of Ferdinando I de’ Medici as the last piece of an update of the defensive program of the Oltrarno, dedicating particular attention to the bastions, to the gunboats, the building and the mysterious treasure room. The reopening of Forte Belvedere is part of the summer opening program of towers, gates and city fortresses. Porta San Frediano, in collaboration with the Angeli del Bello Foundation, will remain open to visitors until 30 September on Saturdays and Sundays from 5pm to 8pm. In the same period, the Torre della Zecca and the Torre San Niccolò will also remain open to visitors, whose intervention restoration recently concluded (Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 8pm, visits every half hour). Added to this calendar are visits to the Fortress of San Giovanni, better known as Fortezza da Basso, in collaboration with Firenze Fiera (Saturday 27 July, Saturday 24 August, Saturday 14 September at 4-5-6pm). The Fort of Santa Maria in San Giorgio, known as Forte Belvedere, is located on the Boboli Hill, near the city gate of San Giorgio, among the southern hills of the city of Florence, and is strongly related to the surrounding area. The complex that we see today is the result of a complex architectural stratification, which was inserted in the vicinity of the medieval wall circuit to find its definition in the last years of the 16th century.
The Fort, whose building is attributed to Bartolomeo Ammannati, is in fact located near the Arnolfian city walls (1285-1333), which already revealed its inadequacy in the first decades of the sixteenth century, particularly on that side of the city and which around the middle of the century, at the instigation of Cosimo I de’ Medici, it led to a revision of the defensive system. Fort Belvedere responds to the defensive needs on the southern front of the city in case of external attacks and also for control and dominion over the city, as well as a refuge in case of dangers and epidemics. The new fort is set between the curtains of the fourteenth-century city walls, its elevated position with respect to the city guarantees defense and protection and offers opportunities for control over the urban nucleus, its location near the Pitti residence facilitates refuge in the event of a riot and its underground they secretly preserve the riches of the Medici treasury. Refuge against political reverses but also against the inevitable health scourges that often struck Florence. The cost of guided tours is 5 euros (full) and 2.50 euros (reduced).
