The Medici family built a banking company that brought them great power in Renaissance Italy. They were of the merchant class and were not elevated to nobility until the 16th century, after which they produced several popes and monarchs. The Medicis also suffered from probably hereditary conditions that caused major joint pain and other problems.
In 1565, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned the building of an elevated passageway connecting his residence, the Palazzo Pitti, with the seat of Florence's government, the Palazzo Vecchio. This enclosed passageway, called the Vasari Corridor, is about a kilometer long and snakes around other buildings on its way. The overt purpose of this private passageway was to allow the Medicis to commute without having to mix with the lower class rabble on the streets, and to hide them from potential assassins. However, Ex Urbe makes the case that the Vasari Corridor was also a disability access ramp, the world's largest, that enabled the Medicis to be pulled by donkey cart or carried by servants without being seen. Several of the passageway's features indicate that purpose if you know how the rich of the Middle Ages dealt with disabling infirmities. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Dror Feitelson)
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