Look at this bronze boar's snout: it shines like gold while the rest of the body is almost black. That is the work of millions of hands. You are standing before the Porcellino, one of Florence's best-loved lucky charms.

1A boar, not a piglet

Although they call it the 'piglet', it is a wild boar. Pietro Tacca cast it in bronze around 1633, copying a Hellenistic marble that Pope Pius IV had given to Cosimo I in 1560 and which is now in the Uffizi. The basin is decorated with plants, frogs, snails and snakes that evoke a marsh. The bronze you see is a copy; the original is kept in the Museo Bardini.

Custom says you should rub its snout to come back to Florence and drop a coin in its mouth: if it falls through the grate, you will have luck.

The coins go to a local charity.

2The Stone of Scandal

Now step into the loggia, built between 1547 and 1551 on Cosimo I's orders for the trade in silk and luxury goods. In the middle of the floor, if the stalls let you see it, there is a large two-coloured marble wheel. It reproduces, full size, a wheel of the Carroccio, the cart that carried the banner of the Florentine republic.

On this very spot, cheating merchants and debtors who would not pay were punished. Their breeches were pulled down and their bare backsides were slammed against the stone, in full view of everyone. This was the 'acculata', and it is said to be the origin of the Italian expression for being left flat broke, 'col culo per terra': with your backside on the ground.

3What to look for

  • The boar's golden snout.
  • The little creatures on the basin: find the frog and the snail.
  • The marble wheel in the middle of the loggia.
The marble wheel of the Stone of Scandal in the floor of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo
The Stone of Scandal reproduces a wheel of the Carroccio.

Documented

Pietro Tacca cast the boar around 1633 from an ancient marble in the Uffizi; the loggia was built between 1547 and 1551, and the wheel in the floor reproduces that of the Carroccio.

Oral tradition

That rubbing the snout guarantees your return to Florence is a popular superstition; tracing the Italian expression back to the 'acculata' is a traditional explanation.

Sources and credits

Musei Civici Fiorentini, Museo Bardini (the original Porcellino); Comune di Firenze, Feel Florence portal (Loggia del Mercato Nuovo); Italian Wikipedia, «Fontana del Porcellino» and «Loggia del Mercato Nuovo».

Photos:

  • The bronze boar of the Porcellino with its shiny snout: Photo2023, CC BY 4.0.
  • The marble wheel of the Stone of Scandal in the floor of the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo: Sailko, CC BY 2.5.

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