Palazzo San Clemente (Florence)

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This palace, formerly called Palazzo Guadagni (but not the palace of that name on the south side of the River Arno in Piazza San Spirito), is located at Via Pier Antonio Micheli 2 at the corner of Via Gino-Capponi (formerly called Via San Sebastiano). It is just to the north of the Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata.

In 1777 King Charles III bought the palace from the Guadagni family; he lived here until he left for Rome in December 1785. Queen Louise lived here with Charles from 1777 until 1780, when she retired to the Convent of the White Nuns in Via Giusti. It was in this palace that Louise first met Count Vittorio Alfieri. Charlotte, Duchess of Albany, lived here with her father from October 1784 to December 1785.

At Charles' death in 1788 the palace was inherited by Charlotte. In 1789 she sold the property to a Neapolitan nobleman, Simone Velluti Zati, Duke of San Clemente, from whom the palace derives its modern name. The Velluti family rented the palace on occasion. In 1830 it became the residence of diplomatic representatives of the United Kingdom; Constantine Phipps, called Marquess of Normanby, who published a famous defence of King Francis I, lived here for a time.

Today the palace houses the offices of the Facoltà di Architettura of the Università degli Studi di Firenze.

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