History’s Largest & Most Famous Disability Access Ramp

Posted by assistant on February 11, 2025

Florence, History, Inventing the Renaissance

Time for the largest, most famous disability access ramp in the world, paired with a twist about how our feelings about a piece of history can reverse completely based, not just on the historian’s point of view, but what questions we start with.

(Part of my series of posts counting down to the release of Inventing the Renaissance)

Florence’s Medici had a family curse: an agonizing hereditary medical condition causing torturous joint pain and severe mobility restrictions, so it was agony to stand, walk, or even hold a pen. Yes, Renaissance Florence, cradle of the Renaissance, was run by disabled people from a sickbed. The famous Cosimo had to have servants carry him through his own home, and used to shout every time they neared doorway. When asked, “Why do you shout before we go through a doorway?” He answered “Because if I shout after you slam my head into the stone lintel it doesn’t help.”

Portrait of Cosimo de Medici by Bronzino. Pictured in his 60s, his face is very lined with age (and pain). He wears a round wool red cap and a red wool robe, in the humble Florentine merchant style. — Portrait of Cosimo de Medici by Bronzino. Pictured in his 60s, his face is very lined with age (and pain).

Photograph of the interior of a bedroom on the main floor Cosimo inhabited in Palazzo Medici. The "Piano Nobile" or "Noble Floor" meant the first floor above ground in the period, the one the nobles of a household lived on so they could avoid having to go up more than one flight of stairs (the ground floor, vulnerable to flooding and cold was used for storage of barrels and jars and goods, not habitation). In the room you see a large window, a bed and chairs upholstered in pale silvery fabric, several large pieces of dark heavy wooden furniture, whitewashed walls, and a large wooden door with a very, very hard solid stone door frame. Hitting your head on these really, really hurts! I hit my head hard on one in a castle in Wales one time, my head was hurting for days! Stone is hard, people! If you've ever hit your head on a doorframe multiply it by ten! — Photograph of the interior of a bedroom on the main floor Cosimo inhabited in Palazzo Medici. The “Piano Nobile” or “Noble Floor” meant the first floor above ground in the period, the one the nobles of a household lived on so they could avoid having to go up more than one flight of stairs (the ground floor, vulnerable to flooding and cold was used for storage of barrels and jars and goods, not habitation). In the room you see period furniture, and a large wooden door with a very, very hard solid stone door frame. Hitting your head on these really, really hurts! I hit my head hard on one in a castle in Wales one time, my head was hurting for days! Stone is hard, people! If you’ve ever hit your head on a doorframe multiply it by ten!

We have a visitor’s account of visiting Palazzo Medici in the days of Cosimo the elder (1440s) and meeting Cosimo and both his sons lying side-by-side three in a bed in pain “each as cranky as the last” using their sickroom as their office as they directed staff in running the republic. Most texts call the Medici condition “gout” a word with the stigma of being the “rich man’s disease” caused by gluttony—a reputation less borne out by modern science. Diet does affect it, mostly alcohol which *everyone drank all the time* and avoiding seafood and organ meat. It isn’t caused by overeating etc. Now, gout in the modern sense is an agonizing joint pain condition caused by buildup of uric acid in the joints, but when a period source says “gout” they could mean any condition that cause swelling, inflammation, and/or pain, from basic arthritis through coeliac to rarer things.

Photograph in the same room in Palazzo Medici, focusing on the large four-poster bed, wider than it is long, built of dark wood with a large chest at the foot of the bed for storage. Around it chairs are gathered, where secretaries could take dictation or visitors meet with the leaders who often used such a bed as their main office. Above the bed hangs a relief carving of the Virgin and Child with angels, and on the wall to the right a painting of Saint Jerome hard at work at his desk as an old man, with an angel helping him. Saint Jerome was a patron saint of scholars, translators, Latin-lovers, and was famous for turning his back on comforts and embracing pain and mortification of the flesh as a way of urging himself to focus on his work and service to the Lord and humanity. The angel helper makes me think of Angelo Poliziano, the famous Homeric poet and dear friend of Lorenzo who often took dictation for him in this room when Lorenzo couldn't lift a pen. — Photograph in the same room in Palazzo Medici, focusing on the large four-poster bed. Around it chairs are gathered, where secretaries could take dictation or visitors meet with the leaders who often used such a bed as their main office. Above the bed hangs a relief carving of the Virgin and Child with angels, and on the wall to the right a painting of Saint Jerome hard at work at his desk as an old man, with an angel helping him. Saint Jerome was a patron saint of scholars, translators, Latin-lovers, and was famous for turning his back on comforts and embracing pain and mortification of the flesh as a way of urging himself to focus on his work and service to the Lord and humanity. The angel helper makes me think of Angelo Poliziano, the famous Homeric poet and dear friend of Lorenzo who often took dictation for him in this room when Lorenzo couldn’t lift a pen.

I talked in my earlier thread [add link here] about Clarice Orsini’s EXTREMELY ILLEGAL hat about how important it was for Medici men like her husband Lorenzo to perform humility. Florence had killed/expelled its nobles, it was a merchant republic and demanded merchant dress & merchant comportment. One had to be seen in the city always walking (riding or being carried was too princely), greeting peers in the street, bowing to each other—are you wincing by now? Imagining walking those stone cobbles while every joint in your body feels like it’s on fire? And going up tall stone staircases?

Lorenzo de Medici did his civic duty volunteering for the city fire brigade, and was a member of the Confraternity of Buonomini, who did volunteer work as shown in frescoes including this one from their headquarters. A Florentine gentleman hands a chicken and a jug of wine to a poor woman as, in the background, another woman lies in a sick bed, being tended by a doctor and another of the wealthy gentleman-volunteers who sits beside her... knees tightly bent to squat on a low wooden stool up a very tall stone step on which the bed is placed. When Lorenzo did this, he'd likely be in as much agony as she was from the pain of stepping up that step and crouching on that stool, but he couldn't dare show weakness and let people *know* it caused him so much pain. — Lorenzo de Medici did his civic duty volunteering for the city fire brigade, and was a member of the Confraternity of Buonomini, who did volunteer work as shown in frescoes including this one from their headquarters. A Florentine gentleman hands a chicken and a jug of wine to a poor woman as, in the background, another woman lies in a sick bed, being tended by a doctor and another of the wealthy gentleman-volunteers who sits beside her… knees tightly bent to squat on a low wooden stool up a very tall stone step on which the bed is placed. When Lorenzo did this, he’d likely be in as much agony as she was from the pain of stepping up that step and crouching on that stool, but he couldn’t dare show weakness and let people *know* it caused him so much pain.

Add the fact that Europe’s normal diplomatic class at the time were all nobles, so every envoy from anywhere is at least the son of a baron and must be greeted with obsequious bowing and scraping, and walking along beside his horse leading it to where he’ll be staying, as an act of symbolic servant-like humility. Ow.

The ceremony of holding the stirrup of an arriving high-status guest, illustrated here showing Emperor Frederick Barbarossa doing it for Pope Adrian, kneeling beside the horse and holding the stirrup as the pope mounts. This kind of thing casually for any arriving minor noble from anywhere was a brilliant way for Medici to perform non-princliness, since it's usually a servant's job (hence the pope humiliating the emperor by making him do it) but look at those harshly bent knees! — The ceremony of holding the stirrup of an arriving high-status guest, illustrated here showing Emperor Frederick Barbarossa doing it for Pope Adrian, kneeling beside the horse and holding the stirrup as the pope mounts. This kind of thing casually for any arriving minor noble from anywhere was a brilliant way for Medici to perform non-princliness, since it’s usually a servant’s job (hence the pope humiliating the emperor by making him do it) but look at those harshly bent knees!

Mature Medici—Cosimo, Piero, Lorenzo, Lorenzo’s mom Lucrezia Tornabuoni had it to—all had to save their endurance for *performing fitness* in the streets, being seen walking to or from the cathedral or church or the Palazzo Vecchio where wary eyes judged them, collapsing back into their beds and servants’ arms (period wheelchairs) the instant the door closed. It was carefully stage-managed agony, and accounts from visitors describe Lorenzo walking alongside their horses, joining dances and parades—performance of fitness necessary to hide his increasing weakness.

Lorenzo’s pain was likely worst, since bone examination suggests that, on top of the family condition, he also had acromegaly, the growth hormone overproduction that makes your bones keep growing & swelling at the joints. 2x debilitating arthritis!

The famous terra cotta bust of Lorenzo. His flattened nose (broken in a brawl in his teen years) makes him look very different from his family, but its conspicuousness made it take a long time for us to notice he also has thickened bone development in his brows, cheekbones, and unusual jaw shape, and a tightened mouth consistent with muscle strain from overgrowth of the jawbone. Skeletal examination found evidence in his hands, his knees etc.

And if you remember my post about the very, very tall towers of the Renaissance, imagine with me the agony of answering the summons to visit the Priori (ruling council). A great honor! But a good floor higher than the tower I lived in that was up 111 steps!

A photograph of Florence’s beautiful Palazzo Vecchio. An arrow points out where the room to meet with the priori was located, on an upper floor above the skyline of the rest of the city, meaning a floor above being up 111 steps!

Diagram of one of the sets of stairs inside the Palazzo, sowing a flight up from the ground, then a twisty spiral, then a long double flight, then a landing and a mini-flight, then another flight, then yet another flight, burrowing like worm tunnels through the stone. These are the secret tunnel passage stairs for emergency evacuation and servant movements, but the main stairs, though harder to diagram so clearly, are just as numerous and just as stone! — Diagram of one of the sets of stairs inside the Palazzo, burrowing like worm tunnels through the stone. These are the secret tunnel passage stairs for emergency evacuation and servant movements, but the main stairs, though harder to diagram so clearly, are just as numerous and just as stone!

Tall, tall, tall stone staircases inside the Palazzo Vecchio, sloping intimidatingly down and up, made of slick, dark, unforgiving stone, with banisters carved into the walls. Guards stand at the bottom, and one tourist taking a photo while another tourist sits exhausted on the steps. — Tall, tall, tall stone staircases inside the Palazzo Vecchio, sloping intimidatingly down and up, made of slick, dark, unforgiving stone.

A narrow twisty stone staircase in a different part of the Palazzo Vecchio, cut of paler rougher stone and very steep, narrow, wedge-shaped, and twisting, with no banister to help! — A narrow twisty stone staircase in a different part of the Palazzo Vecchio, with no banister to help!

You couldn’t be carried (Princely! Ambitious!) you had to go on foot. Once Lorenzo’s father Piero on a really, really bad pain day when summoned asked if, for once, the priors could visit him. There were riots, and an assassination attempt. How dare he *summon* the senators like a duke his servants! Books where the Medici are the bad guys (tyrants who corrupted the republic!) will make this incident proof of Piero’s haughty decadence. But I know can’t do those stairs on a pain day, and we could equally call it a disability accommodation. He’s still called “Piero the Gouty” to this day.

Portrait of Piero the Gouty, dressed in gold-edged Florentine red over black robes. His expression is calm and serious, though with some tightness of the face which makes me think of pain. We call him "Piero the Gouty" to differentiate him from his grandson "Piero the Unfortunate" but I think it's pretty unfortunate going down in history named for your stigmatized disability! — Portrait of Piero the Gouty. We call him “Piero the Gouty” to differentiate him from his grandson “Piero the Unfortunate” but I think it’s pretty unfortunate going down in history named for your stigmatized disability!

Speaking of disability accommodations, eventually the Medici built a ramp. This ramp. It connects from the floor where the priori were, passes through the bureaucratic offices and all-important guild HQs, sloping at an easy grade down to the living-quarters level of the family palace.

Outside of the Palazzo Vecchio, directly above those many flights of twisty stairs. An elevated walkway supported by an arch comes out of the wall and connects to the next building over, with a nice row of windows. — Outside of the Palazzo Vecchio, directly above those many flights of twisty stairs. An elevated walkway supported by an arch comes out of the wall and connects to the next building.

Long hallway interior, with a gently sloping floor paved with terra cotta tiles, and rows of paintings hanging along the walls. — Long hallway interior, lined with portraits.

Continuation of the ramp, you can see it bending and sloping downward in segments as it bends. The ceiling is now arched. Paintings still line both walls. — Continuation of the ramp, you can see it bending and sloping downward in segments as it bends.

The long interior descends at a gentle grade with minimal turns and staircases, mostly stair that a horse can climb—horse ramps and riding horses or donkeys *indoors* at a walk was another proto-wheelchair disability tool, one architecture had to plan for with things like horse stairs.

Another interior section, showing two small sections of half-height shallow stairs. A horse or donkey could climb these, or one could dismount this close to one's destination after taking the living disability aid this far. Even on foot these stairs are much gentler in grade and easier to climb, and separated into half-flight segments, making them much easier than those in the Palazzo Vecchio itself. — Another interior section, showing two small sections of half-height shallow stairs. A horse or donkey could climb these, or one could dismount this close to one’s destination after taking the living disability aid this far. Even on foot these stairs are much gentler in grade and easier to climb, and separated into half-flight segments, making them much easier than those in the Palazzo Vecchio itself.

A shallow sloping section of floor something between a ramp and a staircase, as each step itself slants but is about 2/5 feet deep, while the lips up from step to step are very shallow and slightly raised. This type of staircase is optimized for taking on horseback, and common in the Medici family gardens, which is where this specimen is located. — A shallow sloping section of floor something between a ramp and a staircase, as each step itself slants but is about 2/5 feet deep, while the lips up from step to step are very shallow and slightly raised. This type of staircase is optimized for taking on horseback, and common in the Medici family’s Boboli gardens, which is where this specimen is located.

This is why the Vatican has so many weirdly shallow staircases—popes are old so the Vatican was a palace expecting to always host a disabled monarch, so it’s full of built-in accommodations, the most complex and fascinating accessible architecture case study in the world.

Swiss guards in uniform on duty on a cobblestone street at the Vatican. Above them is an elevated walkway above an arch, one of many elevated walkways optimizing passage without stairways throughout the maze of the Vatican, ideal for the old popes and cardinals constantly at work there. Even the modern elevators have a bench in the elevator! In the elevator! Because old guys need to sit down! — Swiss guards in uniform on duty at the Vatican. Above them is an elevated walkway above an arch, one of many elevated walkways optimizing passage without stairways throughout the maze of the Vatican, ideal for the old popes and cardinals constantly at work there. Even the modern elevators have a bench in the elevator! In the elevator! Because old guys need to sit down!

Floorplan diagram of part of the Vatican palace, showing the many, many rooms and hallways slanting in odd angles that were added on century by century as new occupants expanded and modified the palace to suit their ever cycling needs. — Floorplan diagram of part of the Vatican palace, showing the many, many rooms and hallways slanting in odd angles that were added on century by century as new occupants expanded and modified the palace to suit their ever-cycling needs.

And it’s not chance that it was the first Medici pope, Lorenzo’s son Leo X, who finally installed a donkey-powered elevator in the papal fortress Castel Sant’Angelo. Leo was elected young, still fairly fit, but had memories of his parents’ condition getting worse, and knew his would.

Detail from Raphael's portrait of Pope Leo X, that is Giovanni de Medici, Lorenzo's second son. Leo's face looks young, late 30s or start of 40s, a bit chubby, with some care lines on his brow but relaxed. He wears the iconic red velvet skullcap and red velvet cape lined with white fur that we associated with Renaissance popes. — Detail from Raphael’s portrait of Pope Leo X, that is Giovanni de Medici, Lorenzo’s second son.

So, Lorenzo’s descendants finally built Earth’s largest, most famous disability access ramp. It’s name is the Vasari Corridor, the elevated walkway I discussed last week as conquering Duke Cosimo I’s project of architectural domination, the tyrant’s assassin-proof walkway piercing the city’s heart. Diversity celebration or tyrant’s monument? It’s the same piece of architecture but feels completely different depending on what question we ask about it: Why was it built? For power? For chronic pain? Yes. Both.

Diagram of the full Vasari Corridor winding its length from the Palazzo Vecchio along the river, across the bridge, and above the houses until it ramps gently down to the Palazzo Pitti where the later Medici had moved. Thinking of it as a ramp it looks appealing! Thinking of it as an armored walkway to stop the outraged people from striking back at the tyrant, it feels like a gnawing worm in the heart of the ancient republic. It's both! — Diagram of the full Vasari Corridor winding its length from the Palazzo Vecchio along the river, across the bridge, and above the houses until it ramps gently down to the Palazzo Pitti where the later Medici had moved. Thinking of it as a ramp it looks appealing! Thinking of it as an armored walkway to stop the outraged people from striking back at the tyrant, it feels like a gnawing worm in the heart of the ancient republic. It’s both!

The Vasari corridor bending around the Mannelli tower, whose tall stone edifice blocks its otherwise gentle descent. Last week my story about this building made it a celebration of resistance against conquerors, as the bend in the corridor shows the citizens of the city defying the tyrant who wanted to blast his corridor through the ancient tower that was the birthright of an old respected family, and was forced to go around, leaving this bend which has stood ever since as a symbol of resistance against the tyrant. From the inside, it's a super awkward narrow twisty space where you have to turn, and anyone with a walker or a scooter struggles to make the turns. Looks very different depending on your point of view, literally and figuratively! — The Vasari corridor bending around the Mannelli tower, whose tall stone edifice blocks its otherwise gentle descent. Last week my story about this building made it a celebration of resistance against conquerors, as the bend in the corridor shows the citizens of the city defying the tyrant who wanted to blast his corridor through the ancient tower that was the birthright of an old respected family, and was forced to go around, leaving this bend which has stood ever since as a symbol of resistance against the tyrant. From the inside, it’s a super awkward narrow twisty space where you have to turn, and anyone with a walker or a scooter struggles to make the turns. Looks very different depending on your point of view, literally and figuratively!

Years ago I attended a conference on “The Medici: Citizens or Tyrants?” Dozens of scholars presented evidence for the family’s sincere, humble service to the republic, or for their princely power-hungry cunning. ALL the presentations had GREAT evidence, and, in the end, they came out exactly fifty-fifty: half showing evidence for humble servants of the state, half scheming tyrants. You can read the papers in this incredible book. We always worry about bias in history, but one part of bias is: What question were you asking in the first place?

Was Piero the Gouty demanding the obsequious submission of the priori (like summoning the Senate to the White House) or a disability accommodation just this once? Both, is the answer, but the same questions won’t get to both, it takes different historians asking different questions then comparing.

“Inventing the Renaissance” is a history of histories of this supposed golden age, and much of the process of making history lies in adding new questions to the braid as historians ask new and more diverse questions with each generation.

Ramp with shallowly graded stairs so one can ride up it on a horse, one of the pre-modern world's main wheelchair-equivalents.

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History’s Largest & Most Famous Disability Access Ramp

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