Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities

After Piero de' Medici surrendered Florence to the French in 1494, the city expelled him in fury.

Into the vacuum stepped Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar who had been preaching that Florence's wealth and art were an abomination.

He established a theocratic republic and ruled Florence with the Bible.

In February 1497, he organised a bonfire in this piazza.

Mirrors, wigs, books, playing cards, cosmetics, and art went into the flames.

Botticelli reportedly burned some of his own paintings.

Savonarola called it the Bonfire of the Vanities.

The name stuck.

He lasted four years.

The Florentines, tiring of austerity, arrested him, tried him for heresy, and burned him alive in the same piazza where he had burned the books.

There is a small bronze disc set into the pavement marking the exact spot.

Fun fact: Savonarola correctly predicted several events that seemed miraculous to contemporaries.

His last prediction — that he would survive the ordeal — did not come true.