After the conquest of central and northern Italy by the Franks and their king Charlemagne in 774, the territory of the former Longobard Duchy of Tuscia was reorganised and entrusted to a margrave – or marquis – and divided into counties, headed by counts. Florence became the seat of one of the most important counties in the region, to which the county of Fiesole was also annexed in 854.
The rare documentary sources available and the scarcity of archaeological data make it very difficult to reconstruct not only the urban layout of early medieval Florence, but also its economic, social and power structures. What emerges, however, is the persistence of a situation of decay, reflected in the urban layout, in the spread and size of public and private buildings, and in the construction techniques used. The urban fabric, now very scrappy, was mostly made up of basic constructions, comprising small one- or two-storey houses, in raw earth and wood, with large empty spaces occupied by vegetable gardens and outbuildings. The old buildings that still existed were reabsorbed by these simple constructions or repurposed.
The sources make no mention of the walls until the tenth century, but it is highly probable that those from Roman times, readapted in Late Antiquity, encircled the city throughout the Early Middle Ages, and were repaired and restored between the ninth and tenth centuries, when Florence was the target of Hungarian and Scandinavian raids. The legend of their reconstruction by Charlemagne is unfounded, but it is an indicator of the phenomenon of urban reorganisation that was now beginning to emerge.
The presence of an aristocratic class aspiring to positions of power and the new importance of the bishop, holder of a growing ‘portfolio’ of land and property in the city and surrounding area, also impacted on the urban structure and its organisation.
The bishopric used its property as a tool to secure the support of aristocratic families by granting them landed estates; the aristocracy strengthened its ties with the Church by building and endowing monasteries and churches. This phenomenon, which had already begun in Longobard times, produced a series of religious buildings – oratories, small churches, simple monastic buildings – both inside and outside the city.
Unlike the large Late-Antique basilicas, these buildings were generally small and built with poorer materials and techniques. Their existence is documented by a few sources and very little archaeological evidence, which includes the remains of a few early medieval churches traceable in the underground structures of later buildings, such as at Santa Trinita and San Pier Scheraggio. Between the ninth and tenth centuries, this network of small churches already seems to have given rise to the parish system, which organised the city’s religious life while following and directing its settlement dynamics. Urban monasteries played a similar role.
The bishop, on the other hand, chose the basilica of San Salvatore-Santa Reparata as his permanent seat. In Carolingian times, the basilica was the largest church within the city and perhaps still in good condition. At the end of the ninth century, it was partially renovated and the remains of St. Zenobius, hitherto kept in San Lorenzo, were moved there. It is possible that this transfer of the body accompanied the relocation or re-confirmation of the bishop’s seat in Santa Reparata, near which there is also a baptistery dedicated to St. John – probably not the same as the present one – a bishop’s palace, mentioned as early as 897 but possibly already existing, and a rectory. From now on, this centre constituted the main religious centre of the city, and has maintained the same role to this day.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- G. Vannini, Florentia altomedievale: le mura carolinge, storia e topografia di un mito di fondazione, in Metodologia, insediamenti urbani e produzioni. Il contributo di Gabriella Maetzke e le attuali prospettive delle ricerche, Convegno Internazionale di Studi sull’archeologia medievale in memoria di Gabriella Maetzke (Viterbo, 25-27 novembre 2004), Viterbo, Sette Città, 2008, pp. 437-478.
- E. Scampoli, Firenze, archeologia di una città (secoli I a.C. – XIII d.C.), Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2010.
- Archeologia invisibile a Firenze. Storia degli scavi e delle scoperte tra San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella e Fortezza da Basso, a cura di M. Salvini e S. Faralli, Firenze, Edizioni dell’Assemblea, 2020.