Palazzo dei Dodici

Overlooking Piazza dei Cavalieri at the corner of Via San Frediano and almost directly facing Palazzo della Carovana, Palazzo del Consiglio dei Dodici – often referred to as Palazzo dei Dodici – serves as the seat of the Istituzione dei Cavalieri di Santo Stefano. Like several other buildings in this urban area that were renovated in the modern age under the Medici, its origins are medieval: it was, in all likelihood, the ‘new’ Camera del Comune of Pisa, erected in the first half of the fourteenth century.

Between the late sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century, at a time of intense building activity in the piazza under the aegis of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the building was completely rebuilt to a design by Pietro Francavilla, commissioned by the Collegio dei Priori, who had taken possession of it in 1509. An inscription on the façade records 1603 as the year in which the works were completed (although they continued slightly beyond that date) and pays tribute to the reigning grand duke. For roughly ninety years after its refurbishment, the building remained the only structure in the piazza that did not belong to the Order of Saint Stephen. In 1691, ownership passed to the Order through a donation from Cosimo III de’ Medici, and the building assumed its new role as the seat of the knights’ principal governing body, the Council of Twelve (Consiglio dei Dodici in Italian, hence its name) and of their Tribunal. This role is underscored by the inscription above the entrance portal.

Today, both inside and out, Palazzo dei Dodici shows no significant alterations from the layout it attained in the seventeenth century. Among its interiors, it contains what is probably the most sumptuous room in the entire piazza: the richly frescoed Sala dell’Udienza. The building also houses other important works, including the Assumption attributed to Bastiano Mainardi, an artist in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio.