The building of the Postal and Telegraph Services in Florence, situated in Via Pellicceria No.3, was inaugurated to the public in 1917 and still today, on the inside, it is possible to admire, during the opening hours to the public, the stained-glass windows realized by Galileo Chini.
The surface of the great velarium, arranged as a covering of the Hall of distribution, is composed of four corner panels and the same number of decorative lateral bands, formed of vitreous panels each inscribing a rosette. Each of the four oeil-de-boeufs arranged on the side bands represents an allegory of the Elements, referring to the antique and modern systems of postal transport.
The symbology is materialized through the images of the small craft alluding to the postal craft already in service from the Early Middle Ages and symbolizes Water, of the winged moon recalling the antique use of homing pigeons and to the modern flying equipment of the postal services and symbolizes Air, of the rail tracks which recall the images of a letter with sealing wax and of a postilion horn and symbolize the Earth and the electric discharges of the electrical conductors testify the incipient use of the telegraph and symbolizes Fire.
Galileo Chini is the author of the imaginative allegorical reconstructions which, as mentioned, have decorated the velarium since 1917, carried out as the necessary architectural completion of the hall, assigned to the public and conceived according to the functional typology of the premises covered by a structure of metal and glass carried out by the workshops of the Pignone.
Itinerario Liberty - Planning and Realization - Stefano Pelosi - www.stefanopelosi.it