Work begins on the €31 million redevelopment of Florence’s Sant’Orsola complex

The former convent of Sant’Orsola, located a short walk from Florence’s main railway station and the San Lorenzo area, is entering a new construction phase with works worth more than €31 million. The investment adds to the €4 million already spent in recent years on restoring façades and roofs.

The initial interventions focus on consolidating the underground car park and reorganising the internal courtyards. The symbolic start of the works was marked by the planting of an olive tree during a site visit by Sara Funaro, together with architect Carlo Bandini, who designed the redevelopment project for Artea.

Artea, which won the public tender, has been granted a 50-year concession to manage the complex by the Metropolitan City of Florence, the public body that owns the property.

Public courtyards and multiple entrances

Under the agreement, three internal courtyards will be fully accessible to the public: the Clock Courtyard, the Pharmacy Courtyard and the Tobacco Courtyard. The complex will also open through four entrances, from Via Guelfa, Via Sant’Orsola and Via Taddea, improving permeability between surrounding neighbourhoods.

According to the Metropolitan City, the private investment is required to guarantee functions of public interest and to contribute to the regeneration of a part of the historic centre that has also recently benefited from funding aimed at supporting traditional crafts and small-scale production.

Education, culture and public services

The long-term project envisions a mixed-use complex with a strong public and cultural focus. Plans include a higher education school offering advanced and post-secondary training, alongside meeting rooms, conference spaces and facilities for cultural start-ups.

A guesthouse will provide accommodation exclusively for students, lecturers and users of the training facilities, with no tourist use allowed. Public spaces for leisure and cultural activities are also planned, including exhibitions, events, concerts and performances.

The project also includes a university-level and para-university higher education school, which will be required to provide three scholarships each academic year. A public play centre (ludoteca), open six days a week, is planned within the complex.

A literary café will be open to the general public and will host a newspaper and magazine reading room, equipped for online consultation. Atelier spaces will be leased to artists and artisans for production and direct sales, while the Pharmacy Cloister, accessed from Via Sant’Orsola and Via Taddea, will be dedicated to local artistic and craft production.

A museum “under construction”

The agreement also formalises the opening of the Sant’Orsola Museum, which has been operating for the past three years as a “museum under construction”, hosting temporary exhibitions inside parts of the complex still undergoing transformation.

From monastery to industrial site

Sant’Orsola’s history reflects many layers of Florence’s past. Founded as a monastery, it remained a religious institution from the 14th century until the early 19th century, before being suppressed during the reforms of Leopold of Lorraine. In the 20th century, the complex became part of Florence’s tobacco industry, before being adapted after the Second World War as a reception centre for Istrian refugees and displaced people.

From the 1970s onwards, the site passed through several institutional uses, including plans for student housing, before becoming property of the Metropolitan City of Florence in 2009. In 2023, the Sant’Orsola Museum was launched, offering the first structured public access to a site that has long remained closed or partially inaccessible.

With construction now under way, Sant’Orsola is set to move from a long period of uncertainty towards a new role as a public, educational and cultural hub in the historic centre of Florence.

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