Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, this was the seat of the Republican government of Florence. When Grand Duke Cosimo I moved his family to the Palazzo Pitti, their former home was dubbed the "old palace". Its huge bell tower dominates the skyline of Florence. The bell - the vacca (cow) - was melted down by the tyrannical Alessandro de'Medici in the 1530s. With its maze of corridors, council chambers and dungeons, Palazzo Vecchio was the scene of the imprisonment and expulsion of Cosimo il Vecchio, the siege of the Albizzi, the unveiling of Savonarola's theocratic regime, the destruction of Michelangelo's “David”, and the hurried election of Cosimo I as Duke of Florence. The palace contains frescoes by Vasari celebrating the Medici legacy and the heroism of Cosimo I.