A quiz question · medium
The 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities and Savonarola's 1498 execution both happened in which Florentine piazza?
The Bonfire was on 7 February 1497. Savonarola was hanged and burned at the same spot on 23 May 1498 — fifteen months later. A small bronze plaque set into the paving still marks the execution site. Florentines bring flowers there each year.
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The Dominican Friar Who Ruled Florence for Four Years, Burned the City's Artwork and Books, and Was Then Burned Himself in the Same Piazza Girolamo Savonarola dominated the Florentine Republic from the 1494 expulsion of the Medici until his own execution in May 1498. His February 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities consumed thousands of paintings, books, mirrors, musical instruments, and cosmetics in the Piazza della Signoria. The same piazza was the site of his hanging and burning fifteen months later, on 23 May 1498.