The Royal Apartments reopen at Pitti Palace

After a five-year closure and nine months of restoration work, the sumptuous rooms of the Royal Apartments are once again accessible to the public (click here for more info about tours). For three centuries, the 14 rooms on the Palace’s first storey were home to the lords of three different ruling dynasties: the Medici, Lorraine, and Savoy. One of the first residents of this wing of the Palace was Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, son of Grand Duke Cosimo III, in the second half of the 17th century; later, at the end of the 18th century and at the turn of the 19th, the suite of rooms was renovated and transformed by the Grand Dukes of Lorraine. The final resident, the Savoy King Victor Emmanuel III, left the Palace to the Italian State, along with the adjacent Boboli Gardens, in 1919.

The Royal Apartments recently underwent a complex general restoration and conservation operation involving a large, multidisciplinary team of specialists. This meticulous work included the most varied interventions in all the rooms, from the ceilings to the floors, where the carpets were removed to reveal a perfectly preserved parquet. Moreover, the frescoes, stuccoes, carvings, silk wallpaper, drapery, paintings, furniture and ornaments were subjected to detailed cleaning, maintenance, and restoration. The apartments’ decorative style is “mixed,” reflecting the periods and tastes of the figures and dynasties that inhabited them over the centuries. Now these rooms are once again open to the public every day, with guided tours every hour.

Simone Verde, Director of the Uffizi Galleries, comments: “After a five-year closure, the Royal Apartments at Palazzo Pitti have reopened to the public. After so many months of work, the citizens have been given an astonishing result: the intact resurrection – practically a physical journey back in time – of one of the places most identified with Italian history, a layering of styles and experience that has remained essentially untouched down through the centuries and to this very day. Indeed, here, coexisting in harmony, are relics from the Medici past and from the long Lorraine period, sealed by the definitive contribution of the Savoy family who enriched the residence with furnishings brought here from the palaces of nearly all the other annexed territories.”

Alessandra Griffo, curator of the Royal Apartments at Pitti Palace, remarks: “Reopening the Apartments allows us to recover the vision of Pitti Palace in its entirety, not as a collection of individual museums but as a single palace. The work carried out respects the new layout from the 1990s, which used as its reference the 1911 inventory – the last to document the arrangement of these spaces occasionally inhabited by the Savoy. Few changes were made: some pieces have been rearranged and some paintings, otherwise kept in storage, have been introduced to better highlight the Medici era, when the apartment was inhabited by Grand Prince (1663-1713).”

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The Green Room

In the last decades of the 17th century, this was the Guard Room of the apartment of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici (1663-1713), in the palace’s right wing. Of the original furnishings, only the Allegory of the Peace Between Florence and Fiesole, painted by Luca Giordano (1634-1705) and commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo III (1642-1723), remains at the centre of the ceiling. Although from the same period, the splendid chest of drawers, Vittoria della Rovere, decorated with hardstone inlays, was added later, making a substantial contribution towards restoring the room’s Medici character. The decoration, including the green silk wall coverings and furnishings, was added during the reign of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (1737-1799 and 1814-1859) and is attributed to Giuseppe Castagnoli, who was also active elsewhere in the palace. The 18th-century French portraits were added when the Savoy came to power in 1860.

The Throne Room

In the Medici era, this was the Audience Room of the apartment of Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713). Under the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty (1737-1799 and 1814-1859), it became the Room of the Chamberlains – high-ranking court dignitaries at the service of the Grand Duke. The vaulted ceiling decoration dates to the first period of Lorraine rule and was done by Giuseppe Castagnoli. On the occasion of the wedding of the hereditary Archduke Ferdinando IV (1835-1908) in 1856, the room’s fabric was replaced with the current crimson silk and the imposing chandelier was installed. After Florence’s brief period as Italy’s capital (1865-1870), the Savoy transformed it into the Throne Room, the throne itself simply being a grand-ducal chair to which the Savoy coat of arms was added.

The Celestial Salon

In the Medici era, this was the Cimbali Room, named for the musical instruments (cymbals), in the apartment of Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713). During the second half of the 18th century, the Lorraines used it as a dining room, and the ceiling decoration in white and gold stucco dates to that time. The Eagle Fireplace was done by Francis Harwood (1727-1783), a sculptor also active in the Boboli Gardens. The blue silk fabric which gave the room its name dates to the 19th century; the large wooden chandelier, the only surviving light fixture from the Medici period, was done by the carver Vittorio Crosten and commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo III in 1697. It was originally installed at Villa della Topaia, as was the series of portraits done by Giusto Suttermans (1597-1681) which, although placed differently, have always been part of the palace’s furnishings.

The Chapel

This is the room in the Royal Apartments that best preserves its original Medici appearance dating to the time of Grand Prince Ferdinando, who is portrayed on the right. The alcove housed a monumental bed and, above it, a small library was placed in the mezzanine, hidden behind a carved and gilded screen. The stuccowork and cartouches on the ceiling feature mottos and symbols linked to Ferdinando, and were done by Giovan Battista Foggini (1652-1725). Upon his arrival in Florence in 1765, Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine (1747-1792) decided to transform the small room into a chapel; meanwhile, the chandelier and the crimson red damask drapery were added in the mid-19th century, reflecting 18th-century motifs. Under the Savoy, a partition created a corridor along the window side. The furnishings and paintings reflect the room’s various uses.

The Hall of Parrots

During the Medici period, this was the antechamber of the bedroom of Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713). In the late 18th century, the Lorraines redecorated the ceiling and installed the large stove. Under Grand Duke Ferdinando III (1769-1824), the walls were covered with fabric from the Lyon manufactory brought from Vienna in 1814. In the midst of the Restoration period, the imperial eagles on the fabric were identified with parrots, and the room has carried that name ever since. Under the Savoy (1860-1919), the earlier decoration was to a large degree preserved, and the crystal chandelier dates to this time. The paintings, mostly from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, belonged to the collection of Grand Prince Ferdinando and, in the 1713 inventory drawn up after his death, were held in this wing of the palace.

The Queen’s Salon

In the Medici era, this was the private bedroom of Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713). During the Lorraine period (1737-1799 and 1814-1859), it became the first room in the Grand Duchess’s private apartment, a role it retained under the Savoy. The stucco ceiling decoration from 1833 was done by Emilio Santarelli for the last Grand Duke, Leopold II of Lorraine (1797-1870), on the occasion of his second wedding, while the furnishings, renovated in the late 19th century, reflect the taste of Queen Margherita of Savoy (1851-1926). The yellow silk fabric is of French manufacture, dating to the first decade of the 19th century. The paintings on the walls depict subjects related to Savoy history or scenes from the lives of four Tuscan artists: Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini and Michelangelo.

The Queen’s Bedroom

During the Medici period, this room was part of the apartment of Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713) and was used for playing trucco, a game similar to billiards. Under the Habsburg-Lorraine family (1737-1799 and 1814-1859), the room was initially used as the Grand Duchess’s salon before becoming a bedroom. This function continued under the Savoy until 1919, and the room was used by Queen Margherita (1851-1926) during her stays in Florence (1851-1926). Mounted in 1844, the blue and yellow broccatello marble creates a mellowed atmosphere, accentuated by the two chaise longues and numerous small pieces in the room.

The Oval Room

With the adjoining Round Room, this was part of a set of new rooms commissioned by Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) between 1763 and 1765 for the arrival in Florence of her son, Peter Leopold (1747-1792), as the new Grand Duke. The architect Ignazio Pellegrini (1715-1790) opted for an oval layout well suited to the international Rococo style. The particularly prized gilded stuccos were done by Francesco Visetti’s Milanese workshop, while the Spanish broccatello marble fireplace is also by Pellegrini. The white silk satin wall covering, produced in Florence between 1780 and 1783, is the only one from the time of Peter Leopold that remains in its original location. The room’s decoration reflects the taste for chinoiserie that was highly fashionable at the time. The room’s purpose as a woman’s salon, studiolo, or boudoir was retained through the centuries and to the Savoy period, when it was used by Queen Margherita (1851-1926).

The Round Room

The last room on the southern rondò overlooking the terrace with views of Florence, the Round Room was part of the palace’s expansion ordered by Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) between 1763 and 1765, in preparation for the arrival in Florence of her son Peter Leopold (1747-1792) and of his wife, Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Spain. The neoclassical decoration, completed during the following decade, involved the work of Domenico Ruschi (known as Portogalli; recorded references between 1762 and 1782) for the stuccos, and Giuliano Traballesi (1727-1812) for the wall paintings. In the early 19th century, during the Napoleonic period, the room became a library, connected by an internal staircase to the upper floor. Under the Savoy, and especially during the reign of Queen Margherita (1851-1826), it was used for conversation and womanly work, as suggested by the small tables amid the seating.

The King’s Bedroom

In the time of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici (1663-1713), this was a passage lounge between his apartment and the one occupied by his wife, Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673-1731), overlooking the Boboli Gardens. In 1765, with the arrival of Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine (1747-1792), the sequence of rooms was transformed into the Grand Duke’s private quarters: white and gold stuccos decorated the ceiling, and a large ceramic stove was installed. In 1820, a French yellow silk fabric, purchased by Ferdinando III of Lorraine (1769-1824) during his exile in the Napoleonic period, was installed. Under the Savoy, the room became the bedroom of King Umberto I (1844-1900), with Empire-style furniture along with other furnishings held in the Medici-Lorraine wardrobe.

The King’s Study

In 1765, when Peter Leopold of Hapsburg-Lorraine (1747-1792) arrived in Florence from Vienna, this room became part of his private apartment and, as in the rest of the suite, the ceiling was decorated with white and gold stuccos. Although the precious silk wallpaper produced by the Florentine manufactories dates to the same period, it was installed only a century later, during the reign of Umberto I of Savoy (1844-1900). The room then became the King’s study featuring a mid-18th-century French writing desk, once owned by Louise-Élisabeth, Duchess of Parma (1727-1759), that was transferred to the Pitti Palace in the 1880s upon the Unification of Italy.

The Red Salon

The white and gold stucco decoration on the ceiling dates to the first Lorraine period (1737-1799). During the second Lorraine period (1814-1859), despite the prominent presence of imperial symbols like stars and bees, the Florentine damask was installed, created in the French style at the request of Elisa Baciocchi (1777-1820), Napoleon’s sister and Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1809 to 1814. At that time, the room was used as the Audience Hall by Ferdinando III of Lorraine (1769-1824). This function was retained under the Savoy when some additional furnishings, notably featuring the Savoy cross, were introduced.

The King’s Antechamber

This was the actual entrance to the private apartments of the grand Duke, and later the King. It is identified as the Antechamber of the Assistants to the Apartment of Ferdinando III of Lorraine (1769-1824), a role that continued under the Savoy. Both the white and gold ceiling decoration and the rare wall coverings date to the second half of the 18th century, although we know that the Florentine-made fabric was only installed in 1900.