The Uffizi is connected to this palace that was built by a rival of the Medici
The 
palace was built on the crater left when the victorious Guelphs razed to the 
ground the palaces of their Ghibelline rivals (think Montagues on the ... that the 
semicircular battlements on top of the tower, associated with the defeated... [DOC] [TLE] Article in pdf - Tourism Review [PAR] the Palazzo della Signoria, originally built to be offices for ... the government 
offices to the Uffizi.