Pisa | Logge di Banchi

The Logge dei Banchi, formerly Logge dei Mercanti or del Buontalenti, were built by Grand Duke Ferdinando I dei Medici in 1606. The building, designed by the great Florentine architect Bernardo Buontalenti, was destined on the lower floor as a city market place, on the upper floor as an archive building, far from the dangers of fire because it was free on all sides, and initially the seat of the Ufficio dei Fossi, one of the most important city magistrates’ offices.

The upper part of the building was given a Baroque gable with volutes in the 18th century, possibly the work of the Veronese architect Ignazio Pellegrini, a Grand Ducal architect. Further changes followed after the Lorraine Restoration, starting in 1815. The entire building was raised and the Baroque gable was removed and replaced by a triangular one, with the Lorraine coat of arms in the centre, which was followed, after the Unification of Italy, by the Savoy coat of arms that is still present today.

Other works affected the upper part of the building at the time of the creation of the State Archives, which took over from the Ufficio dei Fossi in 1865. In particular, the space was enlarged and the passageway, which still exists today, connecting the Loggia to Palazzo Gambacorti, the seat of the Municipality of Pisa, was modified. The inscription “Regio Archivio di Stato” was also placed on the gable, removed for work in 1981 and reaffixed after 40 years at the beginning of 2022 at the behest of the Archival Administration of the Ministry of Culture.

Following its establishment, the new State Archives began to collect the historical documentation of the territory and, among them, the important fund of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen, suppressed in 1859. The fund was placed on the shelves of the central hall and the decoration of the vault above it, which subsequently deteriorated, was also dedicated to it, as well as the metal plaques with the names of the knights of the Order that still adorn the ceilings in the remaining parts.

The State’s purchase of Palazzo Toscanelli, the Institute’s current headquarters, in 1931, was followed by the transfer of the study room and the existing documentary holdings to the new building, keeping the Logge di Banchi as a mere storage facility.