Room 7
THE ARCHITECTURE OF A NEW LAND
To become a terrazzano, that is, an inhabitant of a new land, meant building one’s own house. The time permitted was extremely short so the technique of pisé was used: sand pressed into formworks (moulds) that made the foundations of the houses. The houses, reproduced in the room with the help of models, consisted of a workshop on the ground floor, a first floor as living area and a kitchen garden with a well shared with another plot. They could also be enlarged: wealthy people usually occupied several adjacent lots, as in the case of Palazzo Salviati, known as Il Palazzaccio.
THE CITY WALLS
The construction of San Giovanni was progressively defined, and it is likely that by the second half of the fourteenth century, as in Scarperia and Firenzuola, the fortification works were still far from being completed, and were still replaced by wooden palisades. According to Francesco Gherardi Dragomanni, the nineteenth-century author of the Memorie della terra di San Giovanni nel Valdarno Superiore, in 1352, a large part of the walls was still ‘disconnected and in ruins.’ A few years after the foundation, taking advantage of a lull in the conflict with the lords of Valdarno, Florence had begun to fortify the town of San Giovanni with works that lasted until 1363. The archaeological investigations conducted on the remains speak of rubble masonry, with a facing in pebbles and small river stones of uniform size, placed on parallel courses and joined by strong mortar. It is therefore plausible to assume that the constructions built against the walls date back to at least the end of the fifteenth century or at least to a time when the walls had lost their defensive military value.
(The text is taken from the museum guide, edited by Claudia Tripodi and Valentina Zucchi, Sagep, 2024)
BUILDING LOTS AND PRIVATE HOUSES
Becoming an inhabitant of a Terra Nuova brought with it a set of new elements but also obligations such as that of building one’s own house. In San Giovanni, houses were arranged in rows, with fronts lined up on the main street, back-to-back, separated by narrower streets, also called chiassi, punctuated by bridges and overhead galleries. The inhabitants of a Terra Nuova were required to build their dwellings on the allotted building lot in just under a year. The short time available and the basic knowledge of building techniques drove most builders to the use of sabbione – a strong yellow clay, abundantly present on site – and to the adoption of the technique of pisé (beaten earth) and unfired bricks. The procedure was quite simple: the foundations, no more than 30 centimetres deep (for which river pebbles and mortar were used), were quickly made, and formwork made of wooden planks, interspersed with vertical piles, was placed on them, with clay poured in, gradually wetting it and compacting it with large wooden pestles. This was done by progressively moving the planks up to the desired height. Over time, building techniques changed and mixed walls of pebbles and bricks or reused materials were built. The outer surfaces of the earthen walls were smoothed with milk of lime for protection; in areas most exposed to the weather, where this smoothing proved insufficient, it soon became necessary to resort to brick lining.
The façade of the house on the first floor might have an overhang, made of wood or wattle, resting on beams. These overhangs were progressively replaced by masonry structures, and led to the creation of proper porticos, which can still be seen today along the main street. The house facing the street left space in the remaining part of the allotted plot for a vegetable garden, where there was often a well, located between two neighbouring properties and shared.
(The text is taken from the museum guide, edited by Claudia Tripodi and Valentina Zucchi, Sagep, 2024)
