Florence flats so ugly they’ve triggered a police investigation
- - Florence flats so ugly they’ve triggered a police investigation
Andrea VogtFebruary 16, 2026 at 3:33 AM
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The ‘black cube’ development in Florence has been criticised over its brutal architectural design
Not far from the banks of the Arno River, an ultra-modern block of upmarket flats dubbed the “Black Cube” casts a gloomy shadow over the butter and cream-coloured villas that line the embankment.
“Brutto,” said resident Stefano Pieri, shaking his head as he peered across the river at the dark, burnished brass facade of the building in the heart of Florence.
“We Florentines think it is ugly (brutto). Some might say it is beautiful modern architecture when it stands alone. The problem is it is completely out of context here.”
The building is indeed out of place – so much so it is now subject to a police investigation, dragging in everyone from architects to councillors. The city’s quiet nobility have even intervened, breaking cover to stop any further developments from spoiling a skyline that has changed little in hundreds of years.
The black-clad apartment building has blocked out views of famous monuments for some residents of Florence - Nigel Morton
A stone’s throw from the American embassy and the Santa Maria Novella train station, the official name of the “black cube” is Teatro Luxury Apartments, a modern palazzo offering 150 short-term rental units for high-income students and professionals.
Managed by the chain, Star Hotels, it boasts smart restaurants, spas and underground parking.
Here in the centre of the Renaissance city of the 14th-century Palazzo Vecchio, Giotto’s bell tower and Brunelleschi’s dome, residents cannot even change the shade of their window shutters without an extensive bureaucratic permit process.
People are now questioning just how an American real estate developer was granted permission to build something locals refer to as “The Monster of Corso Italia?”
A powerful group of ancient noble families has now called for a moratorium on further high-end developments downriver from the “black cube” in a former industrial area near the former Leopolda train station.
“We must save Florence from any other ‘black cubes’,” the group of 16 families said in a letter to the mayor this week. “No more violence toward our city.” Some of the letter’s signatory families have owned property in the city since the Medici era.
More than a dozen people are formally under investigation over the building of the Teatro apartments
Convincing them to speak out has been dubbed “Operation Blue Blood” by local media, and is largely thanks to a lobbying effort by Roberto Budini Gattai, an architect affectionately dubbed the “communist nobleman” who has been at the forefront of the protests.
According to Italian media, the letter of protest was drafted over an elegant lunch where the members of the ancient families finally agreed to sign up to the cause.
Among the signatories is Claude Marie Agnès Cathérine d’Orléans, 82, a French princess and former Duchess of Aosta, who married Prince Amedeo of Savoy in 1964 and has lived in Florence ever since.
The Princess is not one to mince her words. “The Black Cube and the Social Hub on Viale Belfiore are monstrosities,” she told the Corriere Fiorentino. “I apologise to the architects who designed them, but that’s the way it is. I don’t understand why, when you do something new, you don’t try – I don’t mean copying – but perhaps taking inspiration from older buildings.”
It is the question on everyone’s lips here. “Its obviously not for Florentines,” said Jacopo Palorni, 37, as he walked along the riverbank with his wife and toddler in a stroller.
Construction work continued on the site of the former threate despite objections from residents
Palorni and Maria Christina Silvestre are among many residents who have been forced to move out of the historic centre of Florence and find somewhere more affordable on the outskirts. Like many, they feel their concerns about the urban future of their city go mostly unheeded.
“When they began construction we sent several emails, but never got any response,” they said.
This week Florentine prosecutors began questioning a dozen people who are now formally under investigation for irregularities in the permitting, planning and zoning process that paved the way for the “black cube” to rise up high above the site of the ex Teatro Comunale.
They are trying to trace how the property was decommissioned and sold in 2013 by the then Matteo Renzi city administration.
What they know so far is the property passed through a state entity, then was auctioned off to an Italian investment subsidiary. From there it was sold to a joint venture formed by real estate giants Blue Noble and Hines, within the “Future Living” fund managed by London-based Savills. Hines maintains it constructed the building with all the necessary permits in place.
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
