 Around the middle of the 11th century the position of Florence
in Tuscany became even more important because Lucca was no longer
the seat of the marquisate and because of the city's decisive
participation in the movement for the reform of the church. The
struggle to eliminate secular interference in ecclesiastical
affairs and the affirmation of the independence of the papacy
from imperial power were to have their leading representative in
San Giovanni Gualberto, the son of a Florentine knight, who
founded the order of Vallombrosa.In 1055
Florence even played host to a council, under Pope Victor II with
the presence of Emperor Henry III and the participation of 120
bishops. It is not unlikely that the occasion (of the Council)
prompted the enlargement or partial reconstruction of the
cathedral of Santa Reparata.
Other old structures were also rebuilt during the second half of
the 11th century: the Baptistery,
Santa Felicita, San Lorenzo,
San Pier Maggiore, San Remigio and the Santi Apostoli. Some of
the buildings mentioned above were the earliest examples of the
Florentine Romanesque style characterized by a particular
fidelity to antiquity. An artistic concept which demanded that
architecture express itself in clear geometric forms capable of
revealing their rational basis with immediacy was thus born. The
building which, "par exellence", expressed this
preference for geometric form and for the definition of spatial
values was the Baptistery
which has to be of enormous importance for the history of the
figurative arts in Florence. S. Giovanni became a sort of
paradigmative exposition of the Florentine conceptive of
architecture, bound in so many ways to a classical idea of space,
seen as form rathen than force.
On November 6, 1059, Bishop Gerard, who had become pope under the
name of Nicholas II, reconsecrated the ancient baptismal chuch of
the city which had been rebuilt in more imposing form, much like
what it is today. The building, octagonal in plan, with a
semicircular apse on one side and three entrances, seems to have
been covered by a pointed-arch dome divided into eight sectors.
The outside was not yet faced with its fine marble casing, but
inside it presumably already had the trabeation, at least on the
lower level, which rhythmically scans the sides of the polygon.
The two porphyry columns presented to the Florentines by the
Pisans as thanks for the services they rendered Pisa during the
Balearic enterprise did not arrive until 1117, too late to be
used.
After the death of her mother and of her husband (Geoffrey the
Bearded), Matilda, daughter of Countess Beatrice, became the sole
countess of Tuscany. She had always adhered to the ideas of the
Reform and the policies of San Giovanni Gualberto and during the
struggle for investiture she gave her support to the most
influential of the reformers, Hildebrand of Sovana who later
became Pope Gregory VII, thus finding herself in open contrast
with the emperor, Henry IV.  After the episode
of Canossa, Henry IV's victory in 1081 led to the official
deposition of the Countess who was abandoned by all the Tuscan
cities except Florence. This faithfulness to the deposed Countess
cost the city an imperial siege in July of 1082 (the first
important military action the Florentine city was involved in)
which however failed.
Matilda's special attachment to Florence and the consequent
rupture with the emperor led to the construction, in 1078, of a
more efficient system of defense and the city was supplied with
new walls - those which Dante was to call "la cerchia
antica". This fourth walled enclosure for the most part
followed along the lines of the Carolingian walls but on the
north included the Baptistery,
the cathedral of Santa Reparata
and the residence of the Countess. The course of the 11th century
walls can still be seen clearly in the urban layout: from the
"Castello di Altafronte" (now Palazzo de' Giudici), set
on the Arno, the walls followed the alignment of Via dei
Castellani, Via dei Leoni, Piazza San Firenze and Via del
Proconsolo, then turning west towards what is now Piazza del
Duomo, and continuing along Via dei Cerretani, Via Rondinelli and
Via Tornabuoni, as far as the church of Santa Trinita, at which
point it once more turned and followed a route parallel to the
course of the Arno along the line Borgo Santi Apostoli - Via
Lambertesca, returning to Castello d'Altafronte. The course of
the Mugnone was moved to the south so that it could serve as a
moat for the walls on the western side and the stream ran into
the Arno approximately where the bridge of Santa Trinita now is.
In this period the city was divided into quarters which took
their names from the four main gates: the Porta San Piero on the
east, the so-called "Porta del vescovo" to the north,
the Porta San Pancrazio to the west and the Porta Santa Maria to
the south. Remembrances of the fourth gate are still to be found
in the city's toponymy as in Via Por Santa Maria or Via Porta
Rossa which took its name from a postern or secondary gate in the
southwest corner and which was called Porta Rossa because it was
built of brick. Like all the early medieval cities, the
town plan of 11th century Florence must have been characterized
not only by the recovery of its antique urban structure (walls,
various remnants of roads) but by a basic homogenity, expressed
in a casual distribution of the various landmarks. There were
probably no open public spaces of any great size, with the
exception of the market areas, the largest of which occupied the
site of the ancient forum; the squares documented near the main
churches were probably simply extensions. The urban fabric must
have been composed primarily of wooden houses and only an
occasional towerhouse in stone set on the foundations of a Roman
building loomed up against the sky. The principal landmarks were
doubtless the religous buildings: besides the Baptistery and Santa Reparata and the other old
establishments, several churches stood outside the city walls
along the roads that led away from the gates: San Pier Maggiore,
Santo Stefano al Ponte, Sant'Apollinare, Santa Maria Novella, San Felice,
the church of the Santo Sepolcro, etc.
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