The wealthy Davizzi family, members of the wool guild, built Palazzo Davanzati in Florence in the second half of the fourteenth century. The facade unifies earlier medieval tower homes that the owner combined. It is built of sandstone, with three large portals and three stories of mullioned windows, and a loggia added on the top floor in the sixteenth century.
The Bartolini bought it in 1516, and the Davanzati family, rich merchants, owned it from 1578 until 1838. The antiquarian Elia Volpi restored it and opened it in 1910 as a private museum, the Museo Privato della Casa Fiorentina Antica. The Italian state bought it in 1951.
Highlights include the Sala dei Pappagalli, with painted parrot motifs, and a bedroom with frescoes inspired by a medieval romance. The top-floor kitchen has a fireplace with turnspits. It is now the Museum of the Old Florentine House.
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