Driving beside the River Arno from piazza Piave to lungarno Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi just before turning into viale Giovanni Amendola, you come across an imposing building. At this time of the year, however, with the trees lining the road in full foliage, it may not be that easy to see the Antonio Baldissera Barracks in their neomedieval architectural grandeur, so fashionable when they were first built.
A recent construction by Florentine Renaissance standards, the barracks were not completed until 1909 in a zone that had once been home to textile mills, watermills and public baths, as well as the still-standing royal mint. Nearby, in 1835, the San Niccolò bridge had also been erected. When architect Giuseppe Poggi designed his ring road round the city centre, then the capital of the recently unified Italian kingdom, his original idea was to make this part of town a large green space for public enjoyment, ensuring that Florence would not need to covet other European capitals like Paris. Poggi’s plans for the area would never come to fruition, however, especially after Rome became the capital of Italy in 1870. The idea of a park made way for what local authorities considered to be a more pressing necessity in 1881, namely, to have a greater military presence in Florence.
The first building within the garrison got underway in 1894 and was completed in 1897 to house the 8th Montebello Lancers. They were followed by the 5th Regiment of the Novara Lancers and the 3rd of the Savoy Cavalry. Other buildings were added around a central piazza originally used as stables and a notable covered riding hall. In 1909, the 14th Alexandria Cavalry moved into the main building, with an artillery regiment joining it in 1920. After this last occurrence, the barracks were given the name of a hero of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. This war would prove disastrous for Italy, ending in the first decisive defeat of a European country with colonial ambitions by African forces. At the time, Antonio Baldissera was sent to Ethiopia to replace his predecessor, General Oreste Baratieri, whose men had been seriously outnumbered at the Battle of Adwa, resulting in the estimated deaths of 14,660 Italian regulars and Eritrean Ascaris who fought with the Italians, compared to less than half the number of Ethiopians who were killed. A commemorative marble plaque was placed on the wall of the gallery at the barracks, retracing Baldissera’s story in a nutshell: “General Antonio Baldissera, born in Padua in 1838 – died in Florence in 1917, the magnificent figure of a soldier, a commander and educator. He participated with the rank of a Major General in the African campaign of 1887-88-89. The occupation of Keren and Asmara is owed to his valour and expertise. As a Lieutenant General, he returned to Africa after the Battle of Adwa, taking on the civil and military powers of the Eritrean colony as well as displaying his brilliant military talents in this difficult period showing his quality as a wise and energetic Governor. In 1897, General Baldissera took command of the 8th Army Corps of Florence. In 1904, he became a member of the Kingdom’s Senate.” The General retired from military life in 1908 and he was buried at the Soffiano cemetery in Florence.
In July, the Carabinieri celebrated their 210th anniversary as a military corps, the fourth branch of the Italian Armed Forces under the direction of the Ministry of Defence. As one of the major law enforcement agencies in the country, the Carabinieri are loved and respected by the majority of Italians. In 1945, major changes took place at the Baldissera Barracks, when the 3rd Carabinieri Brigade and the 6th Tuscany Battalion of the Carabinieri took over. In the 1970s, the two companies of the Carabinieri School for Non-Commissioned Officers and the School for Student Warrant Officers and Brigadiers were situated there until the latter was transferred to the Felice Maritano Barracks at Castello near Florence in 2016. In 1992, when the 3rd Brigade was suppressed, it was turned into the Regional Command of the Carabinieri for Tuscany. The Carabinieri serving in the local departments include the mobile, special and forestry divisions covering Florence and the provinces of Tuscany. Over the years, particularly in the 1980s and ‘90s, the barracks underwent a range of alterations and restorations.
The Regional Command of the Carabinieri is also the custodian of important works belonging to Italy’s cultural heritage stored at the Baldissera and Tassi Barracks in Florence. At the Baldissera barracks, these include many paintings including a copy of Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ, a copy of Titian’s Penitent Magdalene and Cesare Dandini’s Donna e fanciullo con ciambella, as well as paintings by 17th- and 18th-century painters of the Tuscan school and furnishings, such as a carved Tuscan chest from the early 1700s and a free-standing clock dating to the 1800s, probably by Michel Poncet.
