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Urban Development in Florence in the 19th Century and the Influence of the French

The two metal suspension bridges spanning the Arno, upstream (Ponte San Ferdinando) and downstream (Ponte San Leopoldo), built between 1836 and 1837 to plans prepared by the firm of the Séguin brothers, French engineers, made it possible to sort vehicle traffic outside the walls.

The French firm built the bridges under a one-hundred years concession (redeemed in 1914). The two suspension bridges introduced the technology of building in steel to Florence. As to formal definition, they avoided all monumental aspects, and reduced the pylons - which in contemporary examples were usually interpreted as triumphal arches or towers - to clean-cut obelisks, and the ancorages to pedestals for the white marble statues of lions.

The widening of Via Calzaiuoli 1841 - 1844, designed by the engineer E Chiesi was the first of a nineteenth century series corresponded to the Medieval work in the section between Piazza Signoria and Orsanmichele and was done taking into account the plans Del Rosso drew up during the French occupation. The street was broadened on the side that faces west, but even the buildings on the opposite side were completely transformed, with the exception of the tower of the Adimari at the corner of Via dei Tosinghi.

The new configuration of uniform buildings was not lacking, as in other period projects, a certain coherency, but replaced the residential and artisan fabric, the product of long historical stratification, with uniform and almost monotonous structures and functions typical of the nineteenth century urban dimension: the stroll, the cafès, the shops, the entertainment. The widening of the street led to the destruction of many interesting Medieval structures such as the Adimari tower, houses and shops, and encountered many difficulties.

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