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Medieval Florence - Materials used to build Florence

THE MATERIALS OF THE CITY
The dominant character of the urban townscape was furnished by the generalized use of pietra forte: from the large churches to the palace to the simple house.
So much so that the city was defined as "all of steel-grey stone".

Palazzo dei Priori (and subsequently the facades of many fourteenth-century private palaces) was characterized by the pietra forte ashlars set in courses but other types of contemporary architecture such as the gates of the city walls or the Loggia della Signoria hark back to the Romanesque period, when the Roman walls constructed of small ashlars set in courses with an alternation of vertical junctures, now without their original plaster covering, were observed and began to be emulated, resulting in surfaces of particularly refined tone.

The ease with which the pietra forte could be worked and its compact grain made it possible to realize decorative elements of outstanding quality and detail.
Around the end of the fourteenth century, in a few buildings of particular note, above all hospitals (for ex., the loggia of S. Matteo in Piazza S. Marco), the facade above the stone basement was plastered. Some of these pietra forte quarries were inside the city bounds: the material for the Palazzo dei Priori, for example, was from quarries in the hills between Piazza S. Felicita and Porta Romana.

Only the religious center, Baptistery-Cathedral-Campanile, was resplendent with marble, which came from Carrara by sea up to Pisa and then along the Arno as far as Signa, while the green-black serpentine came from Prato.
Brick masonry was still frequently used for the entire building, or at least for the upper floors above the ground floor faced in stone, and left unplastered, or occasionally, plastered.

There were various kilns for brick in the eastern part of the City: around Via della Mattonaia and Via dell'Agnolo in their terminal stretches towards the wall, and Oltrarno in the last stretch of Via dei Serragli.
Roofing tiles were made in Borgo Tegolaio. Timber structures were also widespread.

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