This palazzo was built by Giorgio Vasari in 1607 over the foundations of two old buildings incorporating the remains of a tower known as the "Torre della Fame". In this tower, so the story goes, the count Ugolino della Gherardesca, commander of the Pisan fleet, was condemned to die of starvation, along with his children, following a defeat attributed to his treason. This episode is described by Dante in Canto XXXIII of Hell in the Divine Comedy.