Archduk :: Archduke :: Pitti palace History

“The Archduke was born on 4^th August 1847 in Pitti Palace in Florence. Pitti Palace was once described by George Eliot as ‘a marvellous complex of Cyclopean masonry and solemn regularity’. From a very young age, Ludwig Salvator would hear old stories, twisted and adorned over the years, about how the merchant Luca Pitti, an enemy of the Medici family, built the palace in the 15^th century. His intention was to build a structure larger than the Strozzi Palace, and at parties he would boast of erecting a building whose patio could contain the Strozzi in its entirety. But Pitti died a ruined man, and his palace fell into the hands of his rival, Cosimo I, who in 1561 was declared Grand Duke of Tuscany by Pope Pius V. In 1576, Maximilian II, the Holy Roman Emperor, bestowed the same title upon Cosimo’s brother and heir, Francesco I de’ Medici, with the condition that he recognise having received it from the Empire, and not from the papal court of Rome.”