Hotel Palazzo dal Borgo

The Hotel Palazzo dal Borgo is an elegant historic residence born from the Renaissance palace that belonged to the Medici dal Borgo family, a historical monument of the city. A few steps from the church of Santa Maria Novella, you can relive the charm of a small ancient world in a 15th century Medici palace.

The palace was built by the Dal Borgo family during the first half of the sixteenth century. The family came from a small village near Florence, Borgo San Lorenzo, and were better known as "GRULLI".

The Dal Borgo family, together with the Pazzi family, organized the "Scoppio del Carro", an ancient Florentine Easter tradition that included the shooting of fireworks from a carriage to celebrate the victory in the Crusades.

Palazzo Dal Borgo was restored in 1590 by Piero di Jacopo Dal Borgo, in honor of Cosimo de 'Medici. Above the entrance you can see a marble bust of him. On the façade it is also possible to see graffiti that document the life of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The front door is bounded by stones. The windows on the façade have window sills and typical Florentine decorative frames. There is an odd number of windows on the facade and the distance between them varies: this shows that the building has undergone successive expansions.

On the left side of the middle of the facade, there are three windows on each floor. The right side of the facade is completely different: it has four windows on each floor, as well as two openings on the ground floor, shielded by iron gratings.

In the 20th century, the palace was transformed into a hotel. The entire external façade was decorated with graffiti, but today only traces of paint remain. The remaining graffiti can be seen inside the hotel, on the first and second floor. On the facade, above the windows on the first floor there are still graffiti that tell the story of the life of Cosimo I, represented as David. What we can still see today is a graffiti showing David holding Goliath's head in front of two women who are playing. If we look at the second floor we can see the painting of two naked, men standing against the windows. The inspiration for the ignudi was taken from Michelangelo's Medici Chapels. Other restorations were carried out in 1943. At that time it was still possible to see a Latin incision on the windows of the first floor, which celebrated Cosimo de 'Medici and which read: "EN TIBI QUI QUONDAM PREDEDICE TRIUMPHUS ET DOCUIT SORTAES OVERCOME GRAVES" and to history entrepreneur.