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The Loggia della Signoria (now the Loggia dei Lanzi) was built at right angles to the Palazzo dei Priori (now Palazzo Vecchio). It was built, under the supervision of Simone Talenti and Benci di Cione (c. 1315-1388), much later, 1376-c. 1381, as a speakers' platform to protect the city's republican representatives when speaking to the citizenry gathered in the Piazza della Signoria, the city's largest open public space. In the sixteenth century the Medici would take this symbol of Florentine republicanism and transform it into a guard station, a move which made it clear that republican notions would not be tolerated in the Medici Grand Duchy. When built, however, the loggia's grand rounded arches would have expressed the power of the city's governing bodies; that the popular Gothic style was avoided in this civic structure may be a reference to the ancient Roman origins of the city.
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