The Bonaparte family in Florence

“From the Alps to the Pyramids… ”, thus Alessandro Manzoni describes the lightning-quick conquests of Napoleon I in continental Europe in his poem “The Fifth of May”. The kingdoms he conquered were distributed to his numerous siblings and relatives: Spain, Westphalia, Holland, and in Italy Naples and also Tuscany…

Our region was assigned to Napoleon’s sister Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte, Princess of Piombino and Duchess of Lucca, who also received the title of Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Elisa came to Florence in 1809 and, after spending a large sum of money to restore and furnish Pitti Palace, elected it as her residence (today we can still admire the beautifully decorated bathroom of the Royal Apartments and a famous porcelain collection she ordered from Sèvres, featured in the Porcelain Museum). Even Boboli Garden underwent some changes during those years.The Grand Duchess ruled following the Napoleonic Code legislative arrangements (a copy is conserved in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) and promoted Sciences, Literature and Arts, sponsoring in particular Florence’s Fine Arts Academy, the Liceo Regio and Accademia della Crusca.

The second sister of Napoleon, Paolina (who posed as “Venus” for Antonio Canova’s famous sculpture), was also quite attached to Florence and chose to spend here her last days, dying in Villa Fabbricotti in 1825, assisted by her consort, Prince Camillo Borghese, owner and restorator of Palazzo Borghese in via Ghibellina. When Paolina died she left a good portion of her possessions to her younger sister Carolina, who chose to come back to Florence after her exile in Austria had ended. She bought a luxurious building (today turned into an hotel, Hotel Excelsior) in piazza Ognissanti, which soon became a meeting point for intellectuals. Carolina was buried in a chapel of Ognissanti Church, just a few steps away from her Florentine home, under a simple tombstone.

In the right arm of the transept of the Basilica of Santa Croce is the Bonaparte Chapel, purchased by Giuseppe, King of Naples, to bury his daughter Charlotte. His wife Giulia and his niece Marie-Albertine are also buried here. Napoleon’s brothers also lived in Florence:  Luciano, prince of Canino; Luigi, whose son Carlo Luigi later became Napoleone III; Giuseppe, who died in 1844 in Palazzo Serristori in Oltrarno.

In 1847, the Florentine period of the Bonaparte family came to an end, a period that extended well beyond the historical limits of the Lorena Restoration under Ferdinand III, without, however, causing a definitive break with the past.