The Sant’Orsola Museum represents the fulcrum of the new cultural center that will be built in the complex of the same name dating back to the 14th century, located a stone’s throw from the main city monuments. A set of buildings, with three large courtyards, measuring 17,000 square metres, whose creation is due to the four Benedictine nuns who started its construction way back in 1309. San Lorenzo is thus enriched with new public spaces intended for activities of a predominantly cultural, educational and social nature. The former convent of Sant’Orsola opens its historic entrances, its courtyards and its paths to the neighborhood and the city and offers new services that citizens can use for free or at agreed costs: a museum, artists’ ateliers, a school of higher education, a guesthouse, a library, a playroom, spaces for cultural start-ups, spaces for exhibitions and concerts, but also shops, bars and restaurants. These are just some of the activities envisaged in the agreement signed at the end of December between the Municipality of Florence and the ARTEA Société Anonyme company.
The Municipality and Artea have signed the deed which will regulate, for the next 50 years, the use of the spaces of the former convent located in the heart of the historic centre. The Agreed Unitary Project of the former convent of Sant’Orsola implements the provisions contained in the Operational Plan adopted by the Municipality, including the recovery and refunctionalization of the former convent, encouraging the establishment of social and cultural activities that can also be enjoyed during the evening hours, the reconstitution of the identity of the complex from a historical-architectural and functional point of view, the valorisation of the main accesses on via Panicale and via Guelfa and the restoration of the historic ones of via Taddea and via Sant’Orsola.
The project envisages that the three courtyards (the Clock Courtyard, the Spezieria Courtyard and the Tobacco Courtyard) and the access gates from the four streets (via Guelfa, via di Sant’Orsola, via Taddea and via Guelfa) become public spaces . The ground floor in particular is conceived as an extension of the neighborhood and the functions of the city, while the upper floors are intended to accommodate training and professional growth activities; the existing garage is intended to serve both the activities included in the complex and the community. The recovery and refunctionalization project constitutes an urban planning intervention of strategic importance, aimed at the redevelopment of an entire district, and offers a response to the numerous requests for recovery from the community over the years. The main functions that will find space within Sant’Orsola, a large public-owned real estate complex of historical, artistic and cultural importance, are of an educational-cultural nature, as indicated by the Metropolitan City, owner of the complex since 2007. In particular , it is planned that a museum dedicated to the history of the complex will be created with a privileged use for the Florentines (inclusion in the circuit of free Sundays, the free opening of the museum space to school groups of all levels of the metropolitan city of Florence); a Professional Training Center (CFP): the operator will have to make available for free use, for 15 days a year to the Municipality and for 15 days a year to the Metropolitan City, public spaces intended for meeting/conference rooms on the basis of a programming annual to be agreed; spaces for start-ups for cultural production; a guesthouse with spaces intended for the hospitality of course participants and their respective CFP teachers and/or users of the spaces and of the Higher Education School, with the prohibition of welcoming guests other than the categories indicated; tourist services (Info point) for the promotion, marketing and management of complex and integrated tourist products; a leisure area where activities can also be carried out of a cultural nature, including exhibitions, events, concerts and recreational activities with entertainment; a higher education school at university and/or para-university level, where three scholarships must be guaranteed for each school year for attending the schools present in the complex.
