The Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St Lawrence) is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district. It was consecrated in 393 and is one of the many churches that claims to be the oldest in Florence. For three hundred years it was the city's cathedral before eventually losing the status to Santa Reparata. It was also the parish church of the Medici family. In 1419, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici offered to finance a new church to replace the Romanesque building. Brunelleschi was commissioned to design it. The Medicis gave large amounts of money, but to this day nobody has financed a façade. Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family, had given Michelangelo the commission to design a facade in white Carrara marble in 1518. He made a wooden model, that shows how he adjusted the classical proportions of the facade, drawn to scale after the ideal proportions of the human body, to the greater height of the nave . The campanile dates from 1740.
The Renaissance interior is huge, cool and airy and is lined with chapels. Opening off the north transept is the domed Sagresta Vecchia (Old Sacristy), the oldest part of the present church, which contains the tombs of several members of the Medici family. It was the only part of the church completed in Brunelleschi's lifetime. Opposite it in the south transept is the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy), begun in 1520 by Michelangelo, who also designed the Medici tombs within.

Towards 1444 from architect Michelozzo by Cosimo the Eldest, the patriarch of the Medici family, commissioned to Michelozzo a palace to be built in via Larga (now via Cavour), close to the church of San Lorenzo: the palace is the first Renaissance building erected in Florence. Characterised by clearly delineated and rusticated floors and a huge cornice crowning the roofline, the palace stands out for the arched windows arranged along its front and the partially closed loggia on the corner of the building.
Two asymmetrical doors led to the typical fifteenth century courtyard, built following models of Brunelleschi and decorated with graffiti, originally opened on to a typically Renaissance garden. By 1460 the palace was complete (it was also the residence of Lorenzo the Magnificent), although in 1517 the original building was altered by closing the loggia and adding the two "kneeling" windows according to Michelangelo's project.
After the transfer of Cosimo de’ Medici to Palazzo Vecchio in 1540, after he became Grand Duke, the palace continued to be inhabited by the lesser members of the family until 1659, when Ferdinando II sold it to the Riccardi marquises. It was at this time that the palace layout was enlarged and significantly altered. The most important works consisted in the large hall decorated with the frescoes of Luca Giordano that is one of the most significant examples of Baroque architecture in Florence, and in the new entrance staircase built by the architect Foggini. Baroque decorations were added also to the courtyard through the addition of old marbles belonging to the Riccardi collection.
Perhaps the most important section of the palace is still today the Chapel frescoed in 1459 by Benozzo Gozzoli representing the Procession of the Magi. The frescoes explicitly referred to the train of the Concilium that met in Florence in 1439. As a matter of fact many of the personalities portrayed are wealthy protagonists of the time and members of the Medici family.

The most celebrated and grandest part of San Lorenzo is the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) in the apse.
The Medici Chapels form part of a monumental complex developed over almost two centuries in close connection with the adjoining church of S. Lorenzo, considered the “official” church of the Medici, who chose it at the time they lived in the neighbouring palace of Via Larga (now Medici-Riccardi Palace, see the related section). The decision to build their mausoleum in this church dates back to the 14th century (Giovanni di Bicci and his wife Piccarda were for instance buried in the Old Sacristy, built on a project of Brunelleschi). The project of building a proper family mausoleum was conceived in 1520, when Michelangelo started working at the New Sacristy upon request of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, the future Pope Clemens VII, who expressed the desire to erect a mausoleum on behalf of some members of his family: Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours. After completing the architectural works in 1524, Michelangelo worked until 1533 on the sculptures that would have decorated the walls and the very original sarcophagi. The only ones actually completed were the statues of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and of Giuliano Duke of Nemours, in addition to the allegories of Day and Night, Dawn and Dusk, and the group representing the Madonna with Child flanked by Saints Cosma and Damian (protectors of the Medici), executed respectively by Montorsoli and Baccio da Montelupo, both pupils of Buonarroti.
The solid and articulated architectural structure and the strength of Michelangelo's sculptures clearly reflect a complex symbolism that offers an interpretation of Human Life where active and contemplative life interact to free the soul after death, following a philosophical concept that was closely linked with Michelangelo's spirituality.
Numerous drawings by Michelangelo were found in a small space beneath the apse. They had been drawn, as often occurred, by the artist and may be related to the statues and architecture of the Sacristy.
The Chapel of the Princes: This Chapel is yet another grandiose and pompous mausoleum erected between 1604 and 1640 by the architect Matteo Nigetti to the designs of Giovanni de’ Medici, a member of the family who practised architecture in a semi-professional manner. The Mausoleum was conceived to celebrate, with its large dome and lavish interior decorated with marbles, the power of the Medici dynasty, which had safely been ruling Florence for several centuries. The octagonal room designed to receive the bodies of the grand dukes is in fact almost entirely decorated with semi-precious stones and marbles. The grand ducal sarcophagi are completed with bronze statues and inserted in niches. The inlay of the semi-precious stones, partially executed by the extremely skilled workers employed in the laboratories of the Opificio delle Pietre dure (see the related section) took several centuries to be completed due to the difficulty of finding these materials, available only at a very high cost.
The dome should have originally had an internal coating of lapis lazuli but was left incomplete at the end of the Medici period and frescoed in 1828 by Pietro Benvenuti with scenes of the New and Old Testament at command of the reigning Lorraine family.

Attached to San Lorenzo is the Canons' Cloister and the Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana. The cloister was added to San Lorenzo in the 15th century and designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Works on the cloister began around 1420. The cloister has an open-air garden with lemon trees and other plants. On the walls, one finds plaques commemorating various events.
The Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana holds ancient manuscripts collected by Cosimo the Elder. The staircase to the entrance of the Biblioteca was designed by Michelangelo. Walls of the entrance room are divided into three sections decorated with double columns. The stairs by Michelangelo can be seen by the public from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. free of charge. Sundays, one can join a free guided tour from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
piazza S. Lorenzo
phone: 055.216634
opening time: 8.30 - 13.30
ticket: free admission

The original structure dates from 1100. It became the Church and Monastery of St. Mark in 1299, later passing under the protection of the Medici family in the early 15th century when Cosimo the Elder started using it regularly for his spiritual retreats. The church had been taken over by the Dominican friars a few years earlier and Cosimo gave Michelozzo the commission of restoring it (1436-43); he also carried out the fine sacristy as well as the splendid architectural solutions used inside the monastery for the corridor of cells and the library.
Fra Angelico, a friar and artist who, like Giotto, came from the Mugello, lived at the monastery during this period (from 1435) and carried out some of his finest works here. The Florentine Humanist Academy used to meet in the "Gardens" of St. Mark, while the refectory with its Last Supper was used first by Cosimo and later by Lorenzo the Magnificent to assemble some of the finest intellects of the time. This was where Fra Girolamo Savonarola preached and it is no surprise to find that Pico della Mirandola and Agnolo Poliziano, who both died in 1494, are buried here; their tombs are near the second altar on the left.
The church was later modified by Giambologna (Chapel Salviati) followed by Silvani two centuries later. The interior contains a fine altarpiece by Santi di Tito of St. Thomas offering to help at the Crucifix (first altar on the right), the Holy Conversation by Fra Bartolomeo of 1509 (second altar on the left). A Crucifix by Beato Angelico. An 18th century Madonna in Glory by Pucci is painted in the centre of the vast carved ceiling in the interior, designed with a single nave.
The Main Chapel is decorated with frescoes by Gherardini of the Glory of the Dominican Order (1717), while the Altar of Sant'Antonino on the left contains the embalmed body of the saint. On right the entrance of the S.Mark museum.

Ospedale degli Innocenti was the first institution of its kind in Europe (1419). It was created to take care of and bring up orphans and abandoned children as well as give them a trade. The Hospital was built during the Repubblica Fiorentina , financed by the Arte della Lana, by Filippo Brunelleschi, who carried out a harmonic and rational example of hospital architecture which also included cloisters, porticos, refectories, dormitories, infirmaries and nurseries. When it was restored after the flood in 1966 an attempt was made to show more of the 15th century structures.
On the left of the portico one can see an inscription above a small closed window, decorated by two puttos. It is there as a reminder of the "wheel", which functioned until 1875, where mothers placed their unwanted babies when they were unable to bring them up. Today the surname "Degli Innocenti", in its various forms, can still be said to have originated from here.
The loggia above the portico (once the children's sitting room) can be reached from the pretty central courtyard below. Today it contains a small museum of works of art gathered together over the centuries thanks to bequests and donations, most of them unfortunately dispersed in the 19th century. It contains detached frescoes and works by Luca della Robbia, Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo and here one can admire the splendid Adoration of the Shepherds by Domenico Ghirlandaio, the teacher of Michelangelo (1488), where the artist painted - as was his habit - a series of historical portraits among the crowd surrounding the Child: merchants from the Arte della Seta, attendants and benefactors of the hospital.
Once outside the Innocenti, one should take Via dei Fibbiai where one can find the Rotunda of Santa Maria degli Angeli (1433), the unfinished work of Brunelleschi, that was rediscovered and restored during this century.
If you go from the Rotunda in via degli Alfani and then on the left in Borgo Pinti, near number 58, you can see Church and Monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi.
The Monastery, builded in the XIII century for the Benedectines, was altered in the later '400. Giuliano da Sangallo, the brother of Antonio, made the beautiful entrance cloister (1492-1505), that remembers Chapel Pazzi by Brunelleschi in Santa Croce, and the project of the new inner space. Through the mysterious passages, you reach the Capitular Hall and the great Crucifixion fresco by Perugino.

The church stands on the pre-existent oratory of the Servi di Maria (1235) which was built around the miraculous image of Our Lady of the Annunciation by seven young noblemen who decided to take monastic vows and give up worldly pleasures. As a further sacrifice, they later founded the Monastery of Monte Senario, above Fiesole.Michelozzo built the First Cloister in the mid 15th century. The main body of the Church, started in 1440 by Michelozzo and Pagno Portigiani, was later altered by Alberti, who created the impressive Tribune that can be seen on the righthand side.
Three separate environments can be reached from the plain facade, decorated with the coats of arms of Pope Leo X dei Medici frescoed by the young Pontormo : the Chapel dei Pucci or of San Sebastiano on the right; the large Cloister dei Morti on the left, with frescoes also by Andrea del Sarto (the Madonna of the Bag); and the First Cloister or little Cloister dei Voti in the centre, frescoed throughout by masters of the Florentine Mannerist school of the early 16th century: Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Franciabigio e Andrea del Sarto, who painted the face of the Virgin as a really faithful portrait of his wife, Lucrezia del Fede who apparently, according to Vasari was not faithful at all.
The interior of the monument, designed by Alberti but later covered by rich baroque decorations, consists in a single nave covered by a large cupola. The elaborate Baroque ceiling was carried out by P.Giambelli on a design by Volterrano (XVII cent.). The side chapels contain a great many works of art: frescoes by Andrea del Castagno, an Our Lady of the Assumption by Perugino, a Resurrection by Bronzino, sculptures by Giambologna and, in the transept, a marble Deposition by Baccio Bandinelli whose self-portrait can be seen in the face of Nicodemus in the vault.
Inside, on the left, one can see a little marble temple designed by Michelozzo (1448-61) in honour of the fresco of the Annunciation; this is still greatly worshipped and is exposed to the faithful on March 25th (Assumption Day) every year (which was also the date of the Florentine New Year for many centuries)
According to legend, the anonymous artist who painted it fell asleep after having completed the angel but his sleep was disturbed by his fear of not being capable of portraying the Virgin better than the angel he had just painted. When he awoke he was surprised to find that the fresco had been completed by a supernatural hand. Since popular tradition attributes this painting with miraculous virtues, young married girls still go to the Church of the Annunziata immediately after the marriage service to offer their bridal bouquets to the Madonna of the little Temple.
The face of Christ in the relic is by Andrea del Sarto. Apart from the works mentioned above, the chapels in the lefthand nave contain the Holy Father with St. Jerome and the Holy Trinity by Andrea del Castagno, who with rude violence interprets Masaccio 's lesson in perspective at the Carmine.
The Cloister dei Morti leads into the Chapel of San Luca, the patron saint of painters, where Cellini, Pontormo, Franciabigio, Bartolini and other masters are buried. Annual exhibitions of painting by contemporary artists were held here in the 16th-18th centuries.

The first Renaissance refectory in Florence is the one belonging to the Benedictine nuns of Sant’Apollonia, created around 1445 in one of the most florid periods the convent. The end wall of the refectory (9.75 x 9.10 m) was decorated with frescoes, although these were never discovered due to the nuns' strict enclosure.
The suppression of the convent in 1860 revealed the existence of only one fresco representing the Last Supper (the upper section had been whitewashed), which was initially attributed to Paolo Uccello and then to the real author Andrea del Castagno (1421-1457), who worked on it after his return from Venice in 1444.
Other three frescoes were discovered above this one, representing respectively the Resurrection, Crucifixion and Entombment of Christ. At the time of the restoration in 1952, the three frescoes were removed to be preserved, thus allowing the recovery of the splendid sinopites.

Entrance to the museum can be found on the right of the church. Cosimo the Elder commissioned Michelozzo, his trusted architect, to carry out the restoration of the Bell Tower and the crumbling Monastery of the abolished order of Silvestrini Friars. Angelico (Guido o Guidolino di Pietro, Vicchio di Mugello 1387 - Rome 1455), a friar from the Monastery of San Domenico, moved in here with his brothers and worked on the famous frescoes of the 42 cells, the cloister, the chapter house and the first floor corridors from 1438 to 1446.
This was where Lorenzo the Magnificent, later to be his bitter foe, sent Savonarola,to act as Father Superior, until his martyrdom at the stake - after Lorenzo's death - in Piazza della Signoria.
Bartolomeo della Porta, Renaissance painter and follower of Savonarola, also joined the Dominican community here.
The building came under the control of the Government in 1860 and was opened to the public in 1869. The museum dedicated to Fra Angelico was opened in the 1920's with the help of various financial sources.
The First Cloister (of Sant'Antonino) is a perfect example of Renaissance monastic architecture, decorated with flower beds and a majestic Cedar of Lebanon. It contains 17th century frescoes and paintings by Fra Angelico, whose finest paintings on wood - the famous Annalena Altarpiece, the St. Mark Altarpiece, the intense Deposition of the Holy Trinity and the Last Judgement - can be found in the ancient Pilgrims' Hospice. The Hospice also contains the Tabernacle of the Flax Dressers (1433), carved by Ghiberti and painted by Fra Angelico.
The Chapter House leads off from the Cloister. Under the portico one can see the bell known as "la piagnona" (the whiner), attributed to Donatello, which was rung in vain to summon the crowds on the day that Savonarola was arrested. Savonarola and his followers were called "piagnoni" for their appeal for divine chastisement against the corruption of the times.
The first floor contains the tiny cells of the monks and has a characteristic ceiling. Fra Angelico's Annuciation can be found at the top of the stairs. The frescoes in the lefthand corridor are by Fra Angelico and his school.
The righthand corridor leads to the Prior's Quarters, Savonarola's austere rooms, composed of a vestibule and two small cells. The cell he used as a study contains some momentos of his life while the one in which he slept contains the crucifix, by the school of Fra Angelico, which Savonarola used during his sermons.
The Small Refectory is situated to the right on the ground floor. Here one can admire the fresco of the Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1483 circa).
Outside, where Piazza San Marco is joined by Via degli Arazzieri, one can see the Neomannerist Palazzina di Livia (by Bernardo Fallani in 1775), which Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine had built for the ballerina Livia Malfatti. Further ahead, where Via degli Arazzieri meets Via San Gallo, one can find the Cenacolo or Last Supper of the ancient monastery of Sant'Apollonia. This contains the Museum of Andrea Del Castagno, with a fine fresco of the Last Supper (1450 c.) in the ancient refectory. It also preserves some fragments of the frescoes carried out by Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca for the church of Sant'Egidio.
Returning to the exit of the Museum of St. Mark in Via Cavour, on the right one can see a plaque commemorating the Ancient Academy of St. Mark, where Michelangelo, despite his father's mercantile ambitions for him, began to study sculpture thanks to Lorenzo the Magnificent.
The Casino of St. Mark by Buontalenti (1574), today the headquarters of the Appeal Courts, stands on the opposite side of the road, at the far end of the high garden wall of Palazzina di Livia. Further along Via Cavour one can find the Cloisters dello Scalzo (Barefoot), named for the bare feet of the person who carried the Cross in processions, the ancient headquarters of the Confraternity of St. John the Baptist. It can be visited on request to the custodian. It contains a series of 16 frescoes in monochrome chiaroscuro carried out by Andrea Del Sarto with the help of Franciabigio from 1507 to 1526.
The University stands on the other side of the Museum, in Via Lamarmora, while the pretty 14th century loggia at the top of Via Ricasoli was once the ancient seat of the hospital of San Matteo and now hosts the Academy of Fine Arts.

Like many other Florentine museums, the Archaeological Museum stems from the collections of the Medici and Lorraine families that were initally exhibited along with other treasures in the Uffizi Gallery and moved to the Palazzo della Crocetta, the present day seat of the Museum, in 1888 (the building was erected in 1620 by Giulio Parigi).
The main core of the collection focuses on Etruscan civilisation that interested in particular Cosimo the Eldest of the Medici family. But it was the Grand Duke Cosimo I who to put together the currently existing collections in 16th century, though these were later increased by his successors (and in particular by Cardinal Leopoldo). Over time the collection was enriched with famous works like the Chimera of Arezzo, the Minerva of Arezzo and the Orator. The collection was then continued by the Lorraine family that added the extraordinary collection of Egyptian pieces, besides adding new pieces to the Etruscan section, which was organised by series and studied by the scholars of the Lorraine court.
dditions continued also during the 19th century with important works like the Sarcophagus of the Amazons and the Larthia Seianti. It was at this time that a new section of Etruscan topography was created and that the Etruscan sculptures and small and large bronzes were added. In addition to the above-mentioned works, it is worth setting some time aside to visit the section dedicated to the lavish assortment of Etruscan jewels.
Via della Colonna, 38
Opening times:
Sundays - 8.30 am - 2 pm.
Monday: 2 pm - 7 pm;
Tuesday and Thursday: 8.30 am - 7 pm;
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 8.30 am - 2 pm.