Again, Florence

"Florence as the world knew it is no more." Thus last week cabled New York Times Correspondent Herbert L. Matthews. His dispatch dashed recent hopes that Florence had suffered little at Nazi hands. Said Matthews: ". . . The heart of Florence is gone. . . . What little credit [the Nazis] previously got for sparing the Ponte Vecchio (TIME, Aug. 14) must now be withdrawn . . . because instead they destroyed many medieval palaces at both ends, changing the whole aspect of old Florence."

It was as if Paris had lost its Ile Saint-Louis and Place des Vosges, or Vienna its Hofburg and its Opera House on the Ringstrasse. For the mellow buildings near the Ponte Vecchio, on either side of the Arno, formed one of the most cherished views in the world. Most of that crowded, encrusted skyline is now gone. "Palace after palace, dating from the 14th to the 16th Century, are heaps of rubble. In the wreckage lie such things as the ancient manuscripts, books and art objects of the Societa Colombaria. . . ."* Total or heavy destruction included:

P: Both sides of the Via dei Bardi, up to the Piazza dei Mozzi.

P: The 14th-Century houses in the Piazza del Pesce.

P: Torre degli Amidei, Florence's most beautiful medieval tower.

P: The Palace of the Guelph Party, a 14th-Century monument containing frescoes by Vasari.

P: Almost all of the Via Guicciardini, an old street lined with timeworn houses.

Last week shells were still whistling over the city. Its most resplendent treasures, such as Giotto's Campanile, the magnificent Duomo by Brunelleschi, might yet be wrecked or damaged.

* Historical and archeological society founded in 1735; it stood at 32 Via dei Bardi.

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