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La Loggia del Piazzale Michelangelo
Panoramic Restaurant-Bar-Café Florence-Italy
La Loggia was built in the neo-classical style in 1865, under the hill of San Miniato, on what is now Piazzale Michelangelo. This spacious square has the best view over the city of Florence and is the favoured resort of tourists as well as Florentines.
The building was designed by the celebrated architect Giuseppe Poggi and was originally intended to house copies of sculptures by Michelangelo not in Florence, such as the Pieta and the Moses. This was during the five years (1865-1870) when Florence was the capital of Italy, a period of massive architectural development.
By the end of the five years of 'Firenze Capitale' the plans for a Michelangelo museum had been shelved, and in 1876 La Loggia was turned into a panoramic Restaurant-Caf, dominating the entire Piazzale Michelangelo. On the wall of the balcony below La Loggia is a large plaque with an inscription that means: Giuseppe Poggi, Florentine Architect. If you seek his monument, look around you. 1901.
What Poggi created was indeed a complex of incomparable beauty: La Loggia and the other features such as the imposing staircase and the beautiful Viale dei Colli immortalise the name of their creator.
After becoming a Restaurant-Caf in the year 1876, La Loggia was frequented in the later 19th and earlier 20th century by aristocratic and royal families as well as by the rich middle classes, who at that time were the tourists, and also by Florentines on their excursions 'outside the city gates'.
In more recent times our customers have included prominent personages from politics, culture, art and theatre.
The tradition continues, and La Loggia is still today the favourite Florentine destination of numerous Italian and foreign customers.
Our 'mission' goes on, after 130 years.
