Il progetto strategico di ricerca “FIMU - Le mura urbane e il sistema difensivo di Firenze”

The city walls are one of the most fascinating architectural types extant from ancient times when the foundation of a city was done tracing the perimeter along which the city walls were to be built. The tracing constituted a religious (the sacred sphere), social and political-military act. Even today, the knowledge about the walls of Florence isn’t easily accessible to all: the traces of the oldest masonry circuits are not visible, or are in too harsh conditions and in small areas. The poor visibility of the traces, also of the last circle (the sixth one) is worsened by the large urban ‘restructuring’ of the nineteenth century when was reduced the formal and visual continuity of the entire circuit of the city walls. In the current year, the University of Florence approved and funded the ‘strategic project of basic research’, in collaboration with the City of Florence, entitled "FIMU - The city walls and the Florence defensive system: representation and communication of the urban landscape between tradition and innovation".