#palzzo

Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy

Wine Windows (‘Buchette del vino’), Florence, Italy,

These are small windows with inscriptions found on the walls of some wine-producing palaces and used for years to sell wine in bottles to the public, without the need for a shop so avoiding taxes.

Cosimo de Medici, a clever banker and lord of Florence, was the mastermind behind this new sales practice. This way of doing business served a few purposes, from enabling landowners who’d long invested in agriculture to increase their revenues to reducing overcrowding in public places that might lead to public disturbances.

With approximately 180 charming wine windows scattered throughout the historic centre alone, it’s clear that this was a prosperous business in its day.

On an architectural level, they are reminiscent of religious tabernacles, with a door-like shape, wooden shutters crowned with an arch, and elegant stone or wooden frames. In some cases, they were simply an opening into the wooden doors of the palace (as seen at Palazzo Naldini in Piazza Duomo).

Behind these small windows laid the palace’s cellar, where a servant presided over the sale of wine at specific times of the day, which were indicated by a stone plaque positioned near the opening.

But they also served as a useful tool to prevent contagion during the Bubonic Plague or Black Death, which wiped out 1/3 of its population (about 25 million) in the 14th -18th centuries.

Palazzo Chigi-Albani, Italy,

Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy,