ncesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, Ferdinando II and Cosimo III—placed in elegant niches under the windows of the top floor.
The transformation of Vasari's work
In the centuries which followed, a great deal of attention was given to ennobling the materials used in the façade. The original sandstone of some elements was therefore replaced with marble, such as the balcony and frame of the main door and the external staircase, redesigned in neoclassic form in 1821.
But the most important transformations were to the interior, which had to be adapted to the new uses of the Carovana building. Thus at the end of the 18th century the Armoury Hall on the ground floor, which had functioned as a deposit for arms since the Middle Ages, was divided, and the arches of the loggia at the rear of the building were closed with glass panels. The internal staircase by Vasari was also demolished and substituted with a new one.