MANAGEMENTAGEMENTMANAGEMENTEMENTNAGEMENTMEN PLAN PLAN 2006 | 2008 Historic Centre of Florence UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE he Management Plan of the His- toric Centre of Florence, approved T th by the City Council on the 7 March 2006, is under the auspices of the Historic Centre Bureau - UNESCO World Heritage of the Department of Culture of the Florence Municipality In charge of the Management Plan and coordinator of the project: Carlo Francini Text by: Carlo Francini Laura Carsillo Caterina Rizzetto In the compilation of the Management Plan, documents and data provided di- rectly by the project managers have also been used. INDEXEX INDEX INTRODUCTIONS CHAPTER V 45 Introduction by Antonio Paolucci 4 Socio-economic survey Introduction by Simone Siliani 10 V.1 Population indicators 45 V.2 Indicators of temporary residence. 46 FOREWORD 13 V.3 Employment indicators 47 V.4 Sectors of production 47 INTRODUCTION TO THE MANAGEMENT 15 V.5 Tourism and related activities 49 PLANS V.6 Tourism indicators 50 V.7 Access and availability 51 FIRST PART 17 V.8 Traffi c indicators 54 GENERAL REFERENCE FRAME OF THE PLAN V.9 Exposure to various sources of pollution 55 CHAPTER I 17 CHAPTER VI 56 Florence on the World Heritage List Analysis of the plans for the safeguarding of the site I.1 Reasons for inclusion 17 VI.1 Urban planning and safeguarding methods 56 I.2 Recognition of Value 18 VI. 2 Sector plans and/or integrated plans 60 VI.3 Plans for socio-economic development 61 CHAPTER II 19 History and historical identity CHAPTER VII 63 II.1 Historical outline 19 Summary of the current situation of the Heritage Site II.2 Historical identity 20 SWOT Analysis 63 Strengths 63 CHAPTER III 21 Weaknesses 64 The Territory Opportunities 65 III.1 Listed area 21 Threats 66 III.2 Extended area 22 CHAPTER IV 22 THIRD PART 69 The Management Plan Stakeholders OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES IV.1 The Historic Centre Bureau - 22 UNESCO World Heritage CHAPTER I 69 IV.2 The people involved 23 Action Plans I.1 Action Plan for Protecting, Preserving and Enhancing 72 the Heritage SECOND PART 25 I.2 Action Plan for Research and Knowledge 74 ANALYSIS OF THE SCENARIO I.3 Action Plan for the Mobility and the Environment 78 I.4 Action Plan for Tourism 81 CHAPTER I 25 The Cultural Heritage I.1 Cultural heritage, museums, environment, 25 FOURTH PART 85 archaeology, art, history, buildings FOLLOW-UP AND MONITORING OF THE PLAN I.2 Conservation state 25 CHAPTER II 26 APPENDIX 87 Material culture: handicrafts, fashion, trade STATUTE OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF FLORENCE and typical products II.1 Handicrafts, fashion and trade 26 II.2 Typical products 28 APPENDIXES 89 CHAPTER III 29 ANNEX I 89 Intangible culture: cultural activities and institutions, Criteria for inclusion on the World Heritage List events, usages and customs, itineraries III.1 Cultural activities and institutions 29 ANNEX II 90 III.2 Events 38 Historic Centre Boundaries III.3 Customs and usages 42 III.4 Itineraries 42 ANNEX III 91 The Cultural Heritage CHAPTER IV 44 Resources for culture ANNEX IV 108 Cultural Institutions and Associations in Florence ANNEX V 110 Gantt chart INTRODUCTIOIntroductionN Antonio Paolucci Director of Cultural and Landscaping Heritage of Tuscany The Reasons of Florentine primacy “Florence is a city of stone. The architecture “The Florentine air is keen and dry [...] the sky possesses the magic of an optical precision is silvery, periwinkle and sapphire blue; like a instrument. Florence is the city where your torrent without a drop of water: it vibrates so footsteps can be heard rebounding off the distinctly in the blue of fi ne days that it some- stone walls on walking at night and where times seems to close its eyes and you can dis- the human fi gure stands out clearly against cern the waves [...]” the background [ ... ]” (André Suarès). (Guido Piovene). “The city lays along the ample vale, cathedral, [.. ] that special light, typical of Florence, tower and palace, piazza and street, the river does not dazzle but neither is it, hazy, and trailing like a silver chord through all, and curl- at one time, when the air was not poisoned ing loosely, both before and after, over the and grey from pollution, we could see it eve- whole stretch of land, sown whitely up and ry day; but now it is only clear after the rain down its opposite slopes, with farms and villas or when the tramontana blows [ ... ]” [ ... ] I can but muse in hope upon this shore of (Federico Zeri). golden Arno, as it shoots away straight through the heart of Florence ‘neath the four bent “The fi nest Florentine streets are magnifi - bridges, seeming to strain off like bows [ ... ] ” cently stern and sombre, and the strong (Elizabeth Barret Browning). old buildings project shadows so compact on the ground and river that at one’s feet “Far away in the valley lays Florence, pink, there was always another, different city, full grey and brown, with the enormous antique of forms and fantasy [ ... ]” dome of the cathedral dominating the scene (Charles Dickens). just like a restrained balloon [ ... ] All around on the horizon a wavy fringe of bluish hills “But seeing as Florentine painting was, most covered the white villas [ ... ]” of all, art made up of strong personalities, he (Mark Twain). tried to grasp problems of the greatest inter- est, and offered solutions that will never lose “The god who made the hills of Florence was their value” an artist. Oh, he was a jeweller, an engraver, a (Bernard Berenson). sculptor, a bronze-founder, and a painter; he was a Florentine [ ... ]” (Anatole France). 4 These are a few of the many impressions that Florence has evoked. I have chosen them from among several modern authors (writers, poets and art critics) who have lived in the city and have known and loved it. That is enough, however, to help us to understand Florence’s multi-faceted complexity and plurality of its emotional impact. The city is like an optic precision instrument; it is elegance, propor- tion, rhythm (Piovene). Her hills are a work of art, to the point that the God who created them can only have been Florentine (France). Florence is harmonious splendour (Barret Browning) but also shad- ows and mystery (Dickens). The light may be special (Zeri), her skies of silver and sapphire (Suarès), though crossed at times by precari- ous flashes of catastrophic light (Huxley). Her artists are for all time, they are current and paradigmatic (Berenson) whereas the dome described by Twain appears dramatically against the profile of the mountains. The city is something metaphysical which transcends history, in the sense that she is above nature and above history. So there is an emotional way to represent Florence which is sug- gestive and poetic. It is what transpires from the quotations listed. There is another way to describe the city that I would define sys- temic and didactic. Florence is the essential guidebook to Western figurative civilization. In her museums, churches, private palazzi, squares and in the streets of the historic centre, the city shows that she is “packed with amazing things” (Zeri). But the singular fact is that these “amazing things” are offered to us as monuments and collections of perfect exemplariness. Let me take the three best known epitomical buildings by far: the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi. The dome, first of all. This is a masterpiece of beauty and technolog- ical daring. When Brunelleschi created it in 1431, there was nothing like it in all Christianity. We are stupefied by the Manhattan sky- scrapers, but constructions of similar shape and size can be found in all the world’s cities. On the contrary, the Cathedral dome of the Florentines in the fifteenth century had no possible comparison. It was “magnificent and puffed up”, as Leon Battista Alberti wrote, it entered into competition with the nearby mountains and defied the envy of the clouds, as Giorgio Vasari put it. Looking at is closely, it seemed to brush against the sky. 5 Management Plan Florence Historic Centre Seen from far away, from the hairpin bends of the Apennine passes that lead to Florence, one got the impression that it really did cover all Tuscan people “with its shadow” (Alberti again). Not only had the ancients failed to construct something similar, but they were not even able to conceive such a wonder of art and engineering. If you look at Florence from a higher viewpoint (from the Piazzale Michelangelo, from the hills of Fiesole, from the views that Via Bolognese offers), you will comprehend that the city which pro- duced that immense and marvellous thing must have been a city on the cutting edge in the 16th century both in Italy and in Europe, not only regarding the civilization of the arts, but also in economic might, in industrial organization, in engineering know-how and in the frontiers of technology. No monument better than the cupola helps us to appreciate, with dazzling vividness, the primacy of Florence in the ages that the guidebooks call Humanism and Renaissance. And here we have Palazzo Vecchio, a splendid turreted dice of pietra forte. When Arnolfo di Cambio planned it, Florence was entering her heroic century, the century of Giotto and Dante Alighieri. By means of the productive ranks, which were organized into profes- sional corporations, the people had assumed power and the power was immense, founded on monetary economy, textile production and banking intermediation. The gold florin, “the alloy sealed by Battista” as Dante recalls (three-and-a-half grams of 24-carat gold), was the benchmark on the markets of Europe and the Mediterranean.