Wine Doors of Florence - Photography Exhibition - Wallingford
St Peter's Church, Wallingford, Oxfordshire
A glimpse of vanishing historical remnants, scattered across the streets and alleys of Florence
This collection of images are but a glimpse of vanishing historical remnants, scattered across the streets and alleys of Florence, one of my most favourite of Italian cities. .
The doors are symbolic of the history shut within the buildings, now viewing our digital age, where instant gratification, a reliance and focus on technology comes at the expense of appreciating the beauty and history around us; like an arras separating us from what came before.
The doors came into use during the Medici period when in 1559 a law authorised producers outside the city walls to use the doors with “permission to sell wine “a fiasco”, of their own production only and at their place of residence”. There are 167 documented remnants of these doors inside the city where the passage of history has repurposed then as restaurant menu shelves, as door intercoms or letter boxes, as an evolving canvas for creative graffiti or simply ignored them in the face of air-conditioner ducts and gas meter cupboards.