The so-called Vasari Corridor
linking the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace is to be shut down
"effective immediately", museum officials announced Monday.
A fire department inspection found the corridor is not up
to code, sources said.
The Vasari Corridor (Italian: Corridoio Vasariano) is an
elevated enclosed passageway which begins on the south side of
the Palazzo Vecchio, joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its
south side, crosses the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then
follows the north bank of the River Arno until it crosses the
Ponte Vecchio.
At the time of construction the Torre dei Mannelli had to
be built around using brackets because the owners of the tower
refused to alter it.
The corridor covers part of the facade of the church of
Santa Felicita. It then snakes its way over rows of houses in
the Oltrarno district, becoming narrower, to finally join the
Pitti Palace.
Most of it is currently closed to visitors. Uffizi
Director Eike Schmidt earlier this year announced the Corridor
would be opened to the public in October as part of a revamp of
the museum, in one of the most keenly awaited moves in the
Italian cultural world.
The Corridor currently houses some 700 works of art, of
which 500 are self-portraits.
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