The urban layout of the city is that of an open-air museum and features monuments that are inevitably linked to the historical events that have characterised Florence through the centuries and preserved its beauty. One of the most striking structures in the whole of the historic centre, set in the framework of Piazza della Signoria, is the Loggia dei Lanzi, thus named because Landsknechts camped there on their journey towards Rome in 1527. Under the vaults are Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini the Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna and many other masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture and the Roman Age.
Another characteristic monument is the Fountain of Neptune, near the Loggia, a magnificent celebration of Florence’s domination of the seas, created by Bartolomeo Ammannati, with a Neptune in white Carrara marble resembling Cosimo I of the Medici. Also in Piazza della Signoria, the pulsating heart of Renaissance culture, is a copy of Florence’s most famous statue and symbol of the city itself, of Michelangelo’s David, created in 1910. The original is founded inside the galleries of the Accademia, where it is protected and preserved.
