The Vasari Hall (Corridoio Vasariano)—the key passageway over the Arno River in Florence that connects the Uffizi Galleries to the Pitti Palace—has reopened following an eight-year, €11m redevelopment and refurbishment.
The 1km-elevated passageway was constructed by the architect Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de’ Medici, the second Duke of Florence, in 1565. “The Medici household used it to succeed in Palazzo Vecchio from Pitti Palace undisturbed and with out operating dangers to their security,” says a museum assertion. From 1973, the Uffizi displayed self-portraits by artists together with Rembrandt and De Chirico within the hall, earlier than closing the construction in 2016 on account of security issues.
There are crowd administration challenges within the Vasari Hall. Due to its location, excessive above the river, it can’t have fireplace exits each 30m as required by well being and security although 5 new exits have been added. The hearth brigade may even solely permit 25 guests in each quarter-hour. “So no matter we show there should be of the very best high quality,” Simone Verde, the Uffizi director, instructed The Artwork Newspaper. At the moment the partitions of the hall are naked.
Verde instructed The Guardian: “It was a hall of steady passage between the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi for basically 5 centuries. However the concept is not only to open the hall, which in itself has an significance, but additionally to point out to the general public the connection between the assorted souls of this monumental advanced and its collections.”
Funding was offered by the Italian state, which gave €10m, whereas the US businessman Skip Avansino donated $1m. Tickets value €43 for entry to the gallery and the hall which permit guests to spend as much as two hours within the galleries.
“As soon as guests have began to stroll down the Hall, they’re unable to return to the Uffizi; the hall is a one-way system solely, main from the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace,” says the gallery web site. Alternatively, guests will pay €20 as an add-on to bought Uffizi tickets. Guests exit via the Boboli Gardens.
On 27 Might 1993, explosive packs hidden in By way of dei Georgofili detonated, killing 5 folks, together with a child and a nine-year-old youngster. Round 1 / 4 of the work within the Vasari Hall had been broken, with Gerard van Honthorst’s Adoration of the Shepherds (1620) amongst these most badly burned. On a go to to Florence in 1938, Benito Mussolini accompanied Adolf Hitler alongside the Vasari Hall earlier than an official go to to the Uffizi.
Simone Verde, Uffizi Galleries director, within the Vasari Hall
courtesy Uffizi Galleries
