A tour through the Pazzi Conspiracy

A tour through the Pazzi Conspiracy

It's one of the most dramatic stories from fifteenth-century Florence. In 1478, the Pazzi, a well-established Florentine banking family, with support from Pope Sixtus IV, the king of Naples, and the archbishop of Pisa, and others, hatched a plot so daring as to almost appear ridiculous: to

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Thu 13 Nov 2008 1:00 AM

It’s one of the most dramatic stories from
fifteenth-century Florence. In 1478, the Pazzi, a well-established Florentine
banking family, with support from Pope Sixtus IV, the king of Naples, and the
archbishop of Pisa, and others, hatched a plot so daring as to almost appear
ridiculous: to kill Giuliano and Lorenzo de’ Medici in order to take control of
Florence. On Sunday, April 26, during high mass in the Duomo, assassins, armed
with knives, attacked the two brothers. Francesco de’ Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli stabbed Giuliano 19
times, killing him. Two armed priests went for Lorenzo, but Lorenzo fled
with only a wound and locked himself in the north sacristy. Retribution was
swift and brutal; the governing council of Florence ordered the public
execution of most conspirators in a very bloody few days. All Pazzi property
was confiscated and the Pazzi name destroyed. As a result, the Medici were
stronger than ever.

 

Reading about this failed plot is fascinating,
but visiting the relevant sites pulls us deeper into the story and gives us a
fresh view of the city. And so, I present the ‘Pazzi conspiracy tour,’ which
takes you through the center of Florence as well as to a castle in the hills
once owned by the Pazzi.

 

First, we’ll start at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, at
the corner of via Cavour and Via de’ Gori, just north of the Duomo. The
conspirators had originally set their sights on this palace to carry out the
attack. The archbishop of Pisa, Francesco Salviati, had arranged a request to
have the pope’s nephew, a cardinal, visit the palace under the pretense of
seeing the Medici’s fine art collection. Lorenzo set up a luncheon for the 26th
but suggested they meet at the Duomo for high mass first. When the plotters
found out that morning that Giuliano wasn’t going to be attending the lunch,
they quickly switched the site of the attack to the Duomo, where Giuliano would
surely be.

 

Walk down via de’ Martelli and enter the
cathedral of the Duomo, the scene of the crime. It must have been crowded that
day because of the number of the cardinal’s and archbishop’s ‘entourage,’ who
were really armed supporters of the plot. To the left of the altar, you’ll see
the doors to the north sacristy, where Lorenzo fled to safety after the attack.

 

Walk east and take a right on via Proconsolo.
Soon you’ll come to the corner of Borgo degli Albizi. There you’ll see the sign
reading, Canto dei Pazzi, which means literally, the ‘corner of the Pazzi.’ A
month after the attack, the Medici instituted a law forbidding anyone to
mention the name Pazzi when referring to this corner. It’s a wonder why they
did not replace the sign or remove the Pazzi coat of arms that appears on the
opposite corner, attached to the Palazzo Pazzi. This palace is also known as
the Palazzo della Congiura (‘palace of conspiracy’), because it’s likely
the conspirators gathered here to hatch their plans. Francesco de’ Pazzi ran
here after the attack, bleeding from a stab wound in his thigh.

 

Continue on via Proconsolo and you will pass by the
Bargello, where many low-level conspirators were hanged. A more gruesome fate
was reserved for those hanged at the government palace, or what we now know as
Palazzo Vecchio.

 

Keep walking toward Piazza della Signoria, past the
tourists snapping pictures of Neptune and David, stand in front of the Palazzo
Vecchio, and look up. The windows at the top served as continuous gallows
during those three days after the attempted coup. The bodies of the major
conspirators-Francesco de’ Pazzi and the archbishop of Pisa among them-were
each left dangling by a noose above the raving Medici-loving crowd below. The
executioners would sometimes slash the ropes and let the bodies fall onto the
piazza, at which point the people would dismember them, beat them, drag the
body parts through the street, place torsos in shop windows. It was a bloody
festival. In all, about 100 people were killed in three days.

 

Now we take to the hills, concluding our tour with a
trip out of town. The Pazzi owned a lot of property before the attempted coup.
Their twelfth-century castle, now called Castello del Trebbio, sits atop a hill
in Santa Brigida and is easily accessible by bus. It is privately owned, but
you can visit for a wine tasting and a tour through the rooms of the castle.
Legend has it that the Pazzi met here in what is called the ‘conspiracy room’
to fine-tune their plot. Notice the Pazzi coat of arms in the courtyard, the
one remnant of the Pazzi the Medici left out of respect for its creator, Donatello.

 

 

Inspirations

April Blood, Lauro Martines, an excellent nonfiction resource (Oxford University
Press, 2003).

Quattrocento, Susana Fortes’ historical novel set in 1478 Florence (in Spanish;
Rayo/HarperCollins, 2008).

On the QT: Mel Gibson has scouted locations in
Florence for a film about Lorenzo that will focus on the Pazzi conspiracy.

 

 

Individual tours/wine tasting at
Castello del Trebbio on Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30am. Call 335/6550585 for
reservations. The castle is accessible by SITA bus near Santa Maria Novella
station (to Santa Brigida).

 

 

 

 

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