Department Facilities and locationsLocationsSanta Verdiana

Santa Verdiana

Piazza Ghiberti n.27 – Tel. 055 2755181

It is home to the Master’s degree programmes in Landscape Architecture (LM-3, LM-69) and Architecture (c.u.) (LM-4), the Publishing Centre, lecture theatres and study areas.

It houses the Computer Science (LIA), Photography (LFA), Surveying (LRA), Building Information Modelling (LBIM), Regional Design (LRD), Mediterranean Housing Technologies (LTAM) and Theatre/Architecture (LAT) laboratories.

It is also home to the DM-SHS (Documentation and Management of Small Historical Settlements) and INN-LINKS-S (Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Innovation) research units.

Situated on the outskirts of the Santa Croce district, the complex of the former convent of Santa Verdiana occupies part of the block between Piazza Ghiberti, Via dell’Agnolo and Via Ferdinando Paolieri. Acquired in 1986 by the University of Florence, it houses one of the teaching centres of the School of Architecture. In the years that followed, it underwent radical restoration and refurbishment work, aimed at improving its functionality and restoring spaces and volumes of historical and architectural value that had been compromised by its long use as a prison.

Its history began in 1395 when Niccolò Manetto di Buonagiunta, a notary and Florentine citizen, purchased the monastery – which served as the residence of the Father General of the Vallombrosan Monks – to allocate it to the nuns of the order. Five years later, once the work to adapt the building and construct the church had been completed, the convent was dedicated to Saint Giovanni Gualberto and the Blessed Verdiana (a nun who lived for 34 years in the first half of the 13th century, in a walled cell in the company of two snakes), a native of Castelfiorentino, just like Buonagiunta himself.

In 1460, Cosimo the Elder had the garden enlarged; it was enclosed by walls and a cloister was built, with arches supported by octagonal pillars featuring acanthus-leaf capitals. As a reminder of this, the Medici coat of arms was affixed to the outer wall on Via dell’Agnolo.

The vicissitudes of the following centuries culminated in the definitive closure of the convent in 1865 and its conversion into a women’s prison, a change of use that required the functional adaptation of the historic premises.

In 1983, with the construction of the new prison complex at Sollicciano, the premises at Santa Verdiana were vacated and allocated to the Faculty of Architecture.