Piazza dei Guidi in Vinci
A historic site transformed into an open-air museum, including contemporary art and a tribute to Leonardo
In the heart of the village of Vinci, a few miles from Leonardo’s birthplace, opens up Piazza dei Guidi (a.k.a. Piazza dei Conti Guidi), an urban space that today bears the signature of Mimmo Paladino, among Italy’s best-known contemporary artists. The piazza was redesigned following a call for ideas, Una Piazza per Leonardo (A Square for Leonardo), announced by the Municipality of Vinci in 2003 in collaboration with the Associazione Arte Continua and realized in 2006 in collaboration with architect Nicola Fiorillo.
The aim of the project was to give a new identity to the small medieval opening between the narrow downtown streets and the Palazzina Uzzielli, the new hub of the Leonardo Museum, ideally linking it with the historic site of the Rocca dei Guidi.
Paladino’s proposed solution—the winner from among 5 projects—transformed the former confined space into a contemporary urban setting, in dialogue as much with Leonardo’s legacy as with the surrounding nature. Slabs of gray Apuan limestone, metal and glass intersect in a network of planes and sloping surfaces, creating an environment in constant motion. Engravings, panels and symbols open up on the slabs, as a nod to the artist’s rich iconic universe.
In the center of the composition emerges the large Stellated Dodecahedron in aluminum, a tribute to Leonardo and the Renaissance. This geometric figure, which Leonardo drew to illustrate Luca Pacioli’s De Divina Proportione, here becomes an urban and symbolic signal, indicating the entrance to the new exhibition center and inviting visitors on both a physical and mental journey.
The work is part of the Arte all’Arte - Renaissance Nascimento program, which aimed to construct a bridge between contemporary art and Tuscan landscapes, restoring aesthetic and symbolic value to public space. Thus, Vinci and Leonardo’s Tuscany pay an original tribute to the 21ˢᵗ century: an open-air museum that interweaves the memory of a prestigious past with a new architectural and artistic vision.
