Piazza Ognissanti

Piazza Ognissanti. Ercole che lotta con il leone. , (Italian text not transcribed), , Hercules and the lion, Bronze - Romano Romanelli 1935 In the nineteenth century the piazza was named for the patriot Daniele Manin., In the XII century it was the site of the washing troughs of the Humiliati Friars, a Benedictine monastic order that manufactured woolen cloth., With the income from their work the monks purchased some of the Tomaquindi family houses in Borgo Ognissanti and in 1259 built the monastery and church of San Salvatore as well as many fulling mills, drying and dyeing shops along the street where they made the cloth., It is to their industriousness thath Florence owes the magnificent growth of its wool guild and hence its woolen industry, In 1564 Cosimo I forced the order to yield the place to the Franciscan Observant Friars, move to the monastery of Santa Caterina in Via della Ruote and give up their manufacturing. The order was suppressed in 1571., After the construction of Lungamo Vespucci (around 1858) the piazza was changed, both in appearance and purpose. In 1937 the sculpture by Romanelli was placed in the middle of the square and the nineteenth century statue of Daniele Manin was moved to Piazzale Galilei., Restaure effettuate dal , Rotary Club Firenze Certosa