BORGO SAN LORENZO – The monumental and solemn municipal building, which acts as a wide background of the airy Piazza Dante, is the result of the design and decoration work of Tito Chini, who worked there from 1926 to 1931 with the collaboration of the famous Manifattura Delle Fornaci San Lorenzo, active at Borgo since 1906. The façade, characterised by large architectural windows and a long balcony supported by massive ashlar columns, was completed only during 1937. The interior decoration of the building, as well as the shape of its structure would hide, according to a recent interpretation, a complex and articulated Masonic and esoteric symbolism. This has also been linked to the fascist ideology, in whose political climate the building itself was born and of which Tito himself would have been the artistic interpreter.
Artistic works
The peculiarity of the decoration of the building consists of its quality and above all of its integrity. Not only the pictorial decorations and the windows, but also the furniture date back to the time of construction and are due to the work of Tito and his collaborators. The large entrance leads to the beautiful convex circular staircase, while the wooden benches and the wrought iron and glass lamps complement the rich and painted decoration of the walls. The double flight of stairs, framed by a façade delimited by two beamed columns, is accompanied by polychrome geometric stained glass walls and painted panels with complex decorations rich in allegorical motifs (San Lorenzo gridiron, vases, rampant lions etc.). This leads to the second floor, whose most significant spaces are represented by the hexagonal atrium, illuminated by a glass velarium, which leads to the most important offices of the building, accessed by gabled portals. Along the walls of the vast environment are high bands decorated with pot and grate motifs, while on the left of the entrance, within a large rectangular panel, the figures of San Lorenzo and San Martino, painted by Tito, together with an ideal view of the village of Borgo. The two patron saints of Borgo are depicted according to the traditional iconography in iconic and heraldic poses of solemn effectiveness. In liturgical clothes and with the typical grating the first one, while the second one is covered with a shiny metallic armour with cloak and sword. The real political and artistic heart of the building is, however, the podestà’s room (now the mayor’s room), dazzling for the completeness and beauty of the decoration and furniture. The whole space is almost perfectly preserved: from the beautiful central floor tile, with the polychrome ceramic figure of San Lorenzo, to the decoration of the walls. The latter is made of panels framed by figured and vegetable elements in ceramic stoneware, painted with complex aedicula bearing the names of the “illustrious men” of Borgo San Lorenzo. The monumental wrought iron chandelier is another important piece, as well as some of the furniture, made by the Cesare Bini carpentry workshop (again according to Tito’s drawing), to conclude with the splendid series of windows, whose colourful geometric articulation now belongs clearly to the well known Decò style.
Interior and external photos
© Il Filo – Idee e Notizie dal Mugello
