The Garden of the Royal Stables
The complex of the Royal Stables Factory was built during the period when Florence was the capital, between 1866 and 1869, in response to the court’s need for larger stables than those existing in the city, capable of accommodating horses and the quarters of the service staff.
It constitutes the large green area between the Boboli Garden, Via della Pace e del Mascherino, Viale Machiavelli and Porta Romana, within which the Stables buildings, currently home to the Institute of Art, and the Pagliere, intended for the Museum of Figurative Arts of the Twentieth Century, are located. There are also the smaller buildings of the former Horse Infirmary and Mascalcia, now used as residences for the staff of this administration.
The original layout of the Stables was quite faithful to the current one, with an entrance roundabout to the gallop track, a covered riding school, consisting of two symmetrical wings organized around two courtyards, as well as the porter’s quarters, the stalls masters’ weekly rooms and the stable guard’s rooms, and His Majesty’s office.
The Riding School of the Royal Stables Garden, Florence.
The area in front of the Stables, the so-called Cavallerizza, was closely related to the building, part of the surrounding garden’s arrangement. The original connection between the Cavallerizza and the upper floor of the Pagliere, along the embankment, is still legible, through a path presumably used for carts dedicated to transporting hay, and also Geometric Cadastral Plan of the Hill Road, designed by Giuseppe Poggi in 1868, the area of the Royal Stables, Arch. Drawings SBAPSAE FI, PT, PO indicated by the presence of the side gate, to the right of the building’s entrance from the avenue.
Once the court moved to Rome, the stables lost their original function and remained unused for a long time, until in 1919 the main building, consisting of the former riding school, was assigned to the Royal Institute of Art, so that its impressive collection of casts from ancient models could be placed in the hall that had been the king’s gallop track.
The area is subject to protection by Ministerial Decree of November 5, 1951: “Declaration of remarkable public interest of the territory of the hills south of the city of Florence and east of the Senese road located within the municipality of Florence.” Which reads “… it is recognized that the aforementioned locality as a whole constitutes a fundamental and characteristic element of the local landscape”.
The Pagliere
The Pagliere building is a complex of great architectural importance and typologically unusual in the panorama of Florentine construction. It consists of a long central body organized over two levels and two lateral wings which qualify as protruding blocks, articulated on three levels, with a facade featuring an arcade portico on Viale Machiavelli and another on the garden of Porta Romana, with large windows covered with terracotta grilles.
The ground floor of the building, currently divided by partitions, was originally a single large space used as a shelter for horses, marked by pillars and covered with ribbed vaults. The upper floor, preceded by the loggia, was instead the hay storage, ventilated through arched openings with the characteristic architectural motif of the terracotta grille.
The flooring shows traces of the original function, due to the presence of stone rather than terracotta corresponding to the passage of carts. The two lateral bodies were intended to accommodate the service staff and are still partly inhabited by personnel of the Superintendence assigned to the custody of the building.
The Pagliere Building remained unused for a long time until, at the beginning of the 1930s, it became the Pagliere Building.
The rooms on the first floor during the setup works of the event housed the scenic design workshops of the Municipal Theatre. The new use was related both to the size of the room, where the scenes were created, and the close relationship of the Theatre with the scenic design workshop of the School, at that time known throughout Italy for the quality of its teachings, especially in painting and decorative sculpture.
The monumental backdrop canvases, from 1932 to 1950, were painted at the Pagliere, where artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Felice Casorati, Gino Severini, Toti Scialoja, Mario Sironi, came to supervise the execution of their projects. From 1950 until 1987 it was instead used as a warehouse by the Theatre itself.
The original function of the building is clearly recognizable from the large windows shuttered with terracotta grilles as well as from the orientation of the building blocks, which allowed perfect air circulation inside, essential to preserve the ‘Straw’.
The south facades, more exposed to sunlight, are protected by the portico while the north facades are large to allow maximum penetration of light and air across.
Information on the Garden of the Royal Stables and Pagliere
Piazzale di Porta Romana, 1 50125 Florence
