Juxtaposing Old and New

Friday was a more relaxed day in terms of scheduled agendas.  The only hard and fast event scheduled was a noon guided tour of the Davanzati Museum's upper floors.  The Palazzo Davanzati dates back to the 13th century in it's initial construction.  It was expanded twice - by adding additional floors above the existing ones.

It's unique in Florence for two reasons:  1) It focuses more on the domestic life than the other museums in the city, and 2) It was almost lost to dilapidation and neglect until rescued by a wealthy collector of Tuscan Renaissance pieces in the early 20th century.

Very little of what's on display actually came from the Davanzati family.  They got caught on the wrong side in one of the many coup attempts against the Medici.  They were evicted from their home and the family was then lost in the tides of history.  Their palazzo was converted into the offices for the Royal tax collectors.  Graffiti was written all over the walls by those waiting to pay their taxes, and even the clerks used the walls for short term notes.  When the house was restored and transformed into a museum, they left several examples of the graffiti on the walls for us to see.  Unfortunately I can't post any photos because I was not allowed to take them by the staff.  So only a couple of pics from the outside are below.

The most interesting aspect of the house from my wife's and mother-in-law's perspective was the collection of laces and needlework from the 11th-16th century.  They liked it so much that they've talked about coming back because they weren't able to see it all.  My father-in-law enjoyed seeing the kitchen.  As a certified chef, he takes great interest in all things culinary.  How we prepare meals is surprisingly little changed over the last 600 years.  The processes are similar, the tools used to do the processes are not.


For me, the most interesting aspect was how much of the architecture of the house was focused around defense.  The ground floor was used as a courtyard for horses and carts and the garrison of soldiers.  The first floor (what we'd call 2nd floor in the US) was the primary public space used for entertaining guests.  The next two floors were used by the family and their servants.  The kitchen was on the uppermost floor to reduce fire hazard and smoke going through the rest of the house.  Below ground, they house had an enormous cistern to collect rainwater from the roof.  The house was also strategically placed over a well, so their water supply was completely self-contained.  That was important in a day when enemies could besiege the house or enemies could attempt to poison the water supply.

The original building was built to resemble what I call a "square donut."  It was completely open to the sky in the center, with gutters and drainpipes to gather water from the rooftops and empty into the cistern.  There originally were no stairs connecting the floors to one another.  Instead, they used ladders that could be pulled up to prevent attackers from easy access to the upper floors should they gain entrance to the ground level.

It's hard to fathom the kind of life these people led - being so conscientious of mortal danger on a daily basis.  We take the freedom from fear for granted most of the time.  That kind of life is only in other parts of the world, or in other types of environments from our own.  Ironically, this freedom is perhaps the most precious and simultaneously least appreciated of all freedoms that we cherish.

I give great thanks to the men and women in our military forces who do so much to protect us.  I also give great thanks to those who serve as police, sheriffs, firefighters and other personnel who do so much to protect us and respond to emergency situations.  I am grateful to live in a place and time where personal differences are settled either in reasonable conversation or in a courtroom rather than with knives, swords, and cannon.

And most of all, I am thankful to God for the peace that comes from knowing that whatever may happen to me, my security is assured through the acts of Jesus Christ.  I know I am a child of God, and my eternal home is even more secure than my temporal one.