Palazzo dell'Orologio - Torre della Muda

It is the ancient Medieval building where he lived the Captain of the People since 1357, already owned by the Gualandi family. When the building was constructed also incorporated the famous Tower of Muda (or "of Hunger") where, in 1289, died Count Ugolino della Gherardesca with their children and grandchildren, the protagonist of one of the most famous pages of "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri (Inferno, canto XXXIII). The profile of the Tower is still visible on the left of the central arch, which opens today, the twentieth-century four-light. In 1605-1608, following the amalgamation of two buildings through an arc with the clock, the building was finished in its present form, as designed by Giorgio Vasari. From 1566 it housed the infirmary of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen; between 1607 and 1609 Giovanni Stefano and Filippo Paladini Marucelli frescoed the facade and the inner vault of the arch with allegorical figures celebrating the House of Medici and the Order. The clock and the belfry dates back to 1696. In 1919, the building was purchased by Count Albert of Gherardesca, who promoted a controversial renovation work in neo-Gothic style, with the opening of the four-light. In the 70s and 80s the building became Library of the Scuola Normale of Pisa.