THE SQUARE
OF SANTO SPIRITO
| The events
linked to the building of the Church only partially altered
the layout of the district. The square had been built
to meet the needs of the Augustinian monks and the inhabitants,
so the square as well as Via Maggio, were used for the
wool market during the fair of St. Martin's feast day.
The presence of a "stove", between Piazza Frescobaldi
and II Fondaccio, was mentioned as far back as the records
of the 13' century. The "stove" was used as a sauna but
later was also used as a house of ill-repute. |
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| The square,
as we see it today, didn't have a regular profile. In
the middle of the 14' century, it was probably still crossed
by a small street that was the continuation of Via Michelozzi,
crossing Via Maffia to join Via Santa Monaca. This street
divided the buildings on the western side of the square,
leaving the Monastery on the right, and the buildings
used by the monks as laboratories on the left. These buildings
took up two floors which had vaulted ceilings and Gothic
windows on the upper floor. This long building actually
took up all the western side of the square as far as Via
Sant'Agostino. It contained an oven to bake bread for
the poor and pilgrims, stables for the Monastery and a
hospital for the sick. If we give credit to the tradition,
Michelangelo often visited the place at night to study
the anatomy of the corpses that had not yet been buried
and, for this reason, he donated a wooden Crucifix to
the Prior, which is among the Church's works of art. The
Manfredini family built a chapel on the corner of Via
Sant'Agostino. On the external wall facing the square
there was a shrine with a fresco by Giottino that, according
to some scholars, was later moved to the corner between
Via del Leone and Via della Chiesa. At the end of the
16" century, the whole structure was raised by one floor
and transformed into dwellings. A Loggia was then opened
on the corner of Via Sant'Agostino. The whole project
was designed by Alfonso di Sante Parigi (the architect
who completed the Uffizi after Vasari's death) and by
his son Giulio who also built the Chiostro dei Morti in
the adjoining monastery in the first decade of the 17'
century. |
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