Museums

The museum was founded by Frederick Stibbert (1836 - 1906), who was born into a huge inheritance from his grandfather and did not work for the rest of his life. Instead of working, Frederick Stibbert dedicated his life to collecting various objects, antiques, and artifacts and turned his villa into a museum. When the size of the collections outgrew the villa, Stibbert hired architect Giuseppe Poggi, painter Gaetano Bianchi and sculptor Passaglia to add on rooms. In 1906, when Stibbert died, his collection was given to the city of Florence and was opened to the public.

The villa has 57 rooms that exhibit all of Stibbert's collections from around the world. Most of the walls are covered in leather and tapestries and the rooms are crowded with artifacts. Paintings are displayed throughout every room, including still lifes and portraits. There is also valuable furniture, porcelains, Tuscan crucifixes, Etruscan artifacts, and an outfit worn by Napoleon I of France. It also contains around 12,000 pieces of European, Oriental, Islamic, Japanese arms and armour from the 15th century through the 19th century. The Cavalcade room is a grand hall filled with 14th-16th century knights on horseback and 14 foot soldiers dressed in armour and holding weapons. The collection of Samurai armour contains over 80 suits and hundreds of swords.

The museum is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-14, and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10-18. Closed on Thursday.

Stibbert Museum
via Frederick Stibbert 26
50134 Florence
+39 055 475520
www.museostibbert.it
info@museostibbert.it

This museum was a property owned by Michelangelo. The house was converted into a museum dedicated to the artist by his great nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Its collections include two of Michelangelo's earliest sculptures, the Madonna of the Steps and the Battle of the Centaurs. The museum also houses paintings, sculptures, majolicas and archaeological sections.

The museum is open everyday except Tuesday from 9:30-14.

Casa Buonarroti
Via Ghibellina 70
50122 Florence, Italy
+39 055-241752
www.casabuonarroti.it
fond@casabuonarroti.it

Orsanmichele is one of the most unique buildings in Florence and a great source of Florentine civic pride. It is famously known for the sculptures of saints placed in the niches or tabernacles on all four sides of the church by the various guilds of Florence. Executed between 1340 and 1602, together they form a timeline of gothic and renaissance art that is perhaps unrivaled in one location. The first sculpture, of St. Stephen by Andrea Pisano, was executed in 1340 - 150 years before Columbus discovered America - the last, St. Luke by Giambologna - was completed over 260 years later.

The Orsanmichele Museum is currently open on Mondays only from 10 AM to 5 PM.

Orsanmichele
Via Arte della Lana 1
Florence, Italy
+39 055-284-944
www.orsanmichele.net

Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore is a lay institution founded by the Republic of Florence in 1296 to superintend the construction of the new Cathedral and its bell tower. As of 1436, the year in which Brunelleschi's dome was completed and the church was consecrated, the principal task of the Opera became that of conserving the monumental complex which was joined in 1777 by the Baptistry of San Giovanni and in 1891 by the Museum founded to house the works of art which, in the course of centuries, had been removed from the Duomo and the Baptistry.

The collection boasts masterpieces that range from the 14th to the end of the 16th centuries, and is characterized by the fact it is forced to expand continually as the result of the impossibility of conserving many other monuments in the open air where they are exposed to atmospheric pollution. The most famous work of art in the Museum is Michelangelo's Pietà which he had sculpted for his own tomb.

The museum is open Monday to Friday from 8-19 and on Saturday from 8-2.

Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore
via della Canonica, 1
50122 Florence, Italy
+39 055 2302885
www.operaduomo.firenze.it
opera@operaduomo.firenze.it

The Museum Casa Martelli is an interesting example of an 18th-century nobleman's home and of the family's tastes in collecting.

In 1738 Niccolò and Giuseppe Maria Martelli employed the architect Bernardo Ciurini to transform several houses into the present palace. The interior was decorated in the taste of the period with paintings by Vincenzo Meucci, Bernardo Minozzi and Niccolò Conestabile, and stucco ornamentation by Giovan Martino Portogalli. The fine collection of art works belonging to the family was arranged in a specially designed suite of rooms. This is the last example of an 18th-century Florentine collection, with the exception of the Corsini collection, that has been preserved intact.

The paintings include works by Piero di Cosimo, Beccafumi, Salvator Rosa, Luca Giordano and Netherlandish painting of the 17th century.

The Museum is open for guided tours on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings only, and you must have a reservation (€3 - but the "ticket" is free), made by calling 055 294883. You can not walk up and enter without a prior reservation. Via Zannetti is a small side street less than five minutes from the Duomo area.

Casa Martelli Museum
Via Ferdinando Zannetti, 8
50123 Florence, Italy
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/casamartelli

The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence is one of the foremost international institutions in the history of science. Founded in 1927, the Museum is heir to a five century-long tradition of scientific collecting, which has its origins in the central importance assigned to scientists and scientific instruments by the Medici and Lorraine families.

The Institute has been continuously involved in research into topics connected with the history of science and technology as well as the history of scientific instruments, collections and museums.

The museum is currently closed for renovations and will reopen in spring 2010.

Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze
Piazza dei Giudici, 1
50122 Florence, Italy
+39 055 265 311
www.imss.fi.it

Stefano Bardini, an art dealer known for his flair for Renaissance art and his love of blue painted walls, donated his life's labor and the building he housed it all in to the city of Florence in 1922.

The museum houses some of the most unique Renaissance art in Europe. Highlights of the collection include Roman sarcophagi, delicate wooden sculptures, and works attributed to Donatello and Pisano. Newer acquisitions now grace the halls as well as many others thought to be from between the 12th and 15th centuries. All are presented in a unique setting where columns, altars, and even stairs from original Romanesque and Renaissance-era buildings lend the museum's spaces an authentic, ethereal feel.

The museum is open from Saturday to Monday from 11-17.

Bardini Museum
Via dei Renai, 37 (Ponte alle Grazie)
Florence, Italy 5100
+39 055 2342427
www.rinascimentomoderno.it/museobardini

The Horne Museum takes its name from the English collector Herbert P. Horne (1864-1916) who left his palace and his collections of a lifetime to the Italian State.

This palace had belonged to the Albertis and then the Corsis who gave it its present appearance at the end of the fifteenth century. With its balanced and elegant exterior and its restrained courtyard.

The museum reflects its owner's taste in layout; Horne was a man of letters, an architect and a critic of some standing who came to Florence at the end of the last century to study the Italian Renaissance. He particularly favored works of art, furniture, ornamental and useful household objects, the contents in fact of the type of Florentine home which he wished to recreate for himself. The result was a large and rich collection, which has been recently rearranged after the damage of the flood of 1966 and which preserves the character of an inhabited home. The most precious piece is the painting representing "St. Stephen" by Giotto. The sculptures include works by Desiderio da Settignano, Giambologna and the "Angels in Glory" by Bernini.

The museum is open from 9-13 from Monday to Saturday.

Horne Museum
via dei Benci, 6
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055244661
www.museohorne.it
info@museohorne.it

The museum occupies a vast area of the Dominican convent and offers visitors an example of a perfectly preserved 15th century convent, based on the rational and harmonious plan inspired by Bruschelleschi's innovations. The complex also contains the works of Fra' Angelico, one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. A Dominican monk, he closely collaborated with Michelozzo and his pupils to create the fresco of the large alms-house, the refectory, the cloister and the monks' cells on the first floor.

Other works by Fra Angelico, of various provenance, were assembled here in the 20th century, resulting in a remarkable collection of the artist's works. There is also an important collection of 16th-century paintings including numerous works by Fra Bartolomeo. The museum has a section devoted to fragments of sculpture and architecture from buildings of the city center which were demolished in the 19th century.

The museum is open from Monday to Friday from 8:15 to 13:50 and on Saturday and Sunday from 8:15 to 16:50.

Museum of San Marco
Piazza San Marco, 1
Florence, Italy 50123
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/sanmarco

The Medici Chapels form part of a monumental complex developed over almost two centuries to serve as a proper family mausoleum for the Medici family. Michelangelo began working on the structure around 1520, and until 1533 he worked on the sculptures that wonld have decorated the walls and the 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 Nitgh, Dawn and Dusk, and the group representing the Madonna with child flanked by Saints Cosma and Damiano (protectors of the Medici), executed respectively by Montorsoli and Baccio da Montelupo, both pupils of Buonarroti.

The Museum is especially famous for the New Sacristy which Michelangelo designed for the tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, creating one of the masterpieces of architecture and sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. The Chapel of the Princes was begun in the early 17th century to become the mausoleum of the Medici grand-dukes. This grandiose octagonal chapel, with its immense dome, is entirely faced with polychrome marble and pietre dure.

The museum is open daily from 8:15-13:50.

Museum of the Medici Chapels
Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, 6
Florence, Italy
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/cappellemedicee

The Palazzo Pitti is a grand Renaissance palace built in the second half of the 15th century based on the project of Filippo Brunelleschi and Luca Pitti. Today, it houses several important collections of paintings and sculpture, works of art, porcelain and a costume gallery, besides providing a magnificently decorated historical setting which extends to the Boboli Gardens, one of the earliest Italian gardens famous also for its fountains and grottoes.

The palace and the gardens house the Palatine Gallery, the Silver Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Costume Gallery, the Porcelain Museum and the Museum of Carriages.

Pitti Palace
Via della Ninna, 5
Florence, Italy 50122
Via della Ninna, 5
+39 055 23885
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/palazzopitti

The Bargello has an extensive collection of sculpture and masterpieces of art. It occupies an impressive building that was formerly a prison barracks and home to the military captain in charge of keeping peace and justice during riots and uprisings.

Since 1865, the palazzo houses the National Museum, bringing together many important
Renaissance sculptures, including masterpieces by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Cellini. The museum was subsequently enriched with splendid collections of bronzes, majolica, waxes, enamels, medals, seals, ivories, amber, tapestries, furniture and textiles from the Medici collections and those of private donors.

Current opening hours are Monday to Sunday, 8.15 - 14.00 (opening hours are longer in the Spring, Summer and Fall - these are the Winter hours).

Closed the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month, and the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sunday of each month, New Year's Day, May 1st and Christmas Day.

Bargello
Via del Proconsolo, 4
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/bargello

Here is a video (in Italian) featuring the art works of the Bargello:

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure literally translates to mean Workshop of Semi-precious Stones. It is a public institute of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage based in Florence which is a global leader in the field of art restoration and provides teaching as one of two Italian state conservation schools.

The museum is contained within the workshop. It displays examples of Pietre Dure works, including cabinets, table tops and plates, showing an immense repertoire of decoration, usually either flowers, fruits and animals, but also sometimes other picturesque scenes, including a famous view of the Piazza della Signoria. There is also a large baroque fireplace entirely covered in malachite as well as copies of paintings executed in inlaid stone. An exhibition of the technical processes of Pietre Dure works through history, can be found on the first floor as well as a large range of finished works dating back to the time of the Medici. There are also vases and furnishings decorated with Art Nouveau designs of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The museum is open from Monday to Saturday from 8.15-14.00 and from Thursday from 8.15-19.00.

Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Via degli Alfani, 78
Florence, Italy
+39 055 265111
www.firenzemusei.it/00_english/opificio

The Archaeological Museum was inaugurated in the presence of king Victor Emmanuel II in 1870 in the buildings of the Cenacolo di Fuligno on via Faenza. At that time it only comprised Etruscan and Roman remains. As the collections grew, a new site soon became necessary and in 1880 the museum was transferred to its present building.

The museum houses Etruscan, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian collections.The Egyptian section houses the second largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Italy.

Open Monday 14-19; Tuesday and Thursday 8:30-19; Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 8:30-14

Museo Archeologico di Firenze
Via della Colonna, 38
Florence, Italy 50121
+39 055 23575
www.comune.firenze.it/soggetti/sat/didattica/museo
sat@comune.firenze.it

This museum is also known as the Museum of the traditional Florentine house. The Palazzo was erected in the 14th century by the Davizzi family, who were wealthy members of a wool guild. In 1516 it was sold to the Bartolini family, and, later that century, to the Davanzati family, who held it until 1838. After the suicide of Carlo Davanzati, it was split into different quarters and modified. After escaping the numerous demolitions of 19th century Florence, it was bought by Elia Volpi, an antiquarian, who restored to its original state.

In 1910, Volpi opened the building as a private museum. The contents of this museum kept changing as Volpi sold the furniture at auctions, including in a major sale of 1916 in New York. In the 1920s, Egyptian antique dealers Vitale and Leopoldo Bengujat acquired the building and its contents. It was acquired by the Italian State in 1951.

The Palazzo is entirely furnished with paintings, furniture and objects partly derived from other Florentine museums and partly from donations and acquisitions. Apart from the furnishings, which faithfully reflect those of a Florentine home from the medieval to the renaissance periods, the museum also has an important collection of lace from Italy and elsewhere.

Museum of Palazzo Davanzati
Via di Porta Rossa 13
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055 2388610
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/davanzati

Originally created as an art school, the Accademia today contains masterpieces by Venetian painting up to the 18th century, as well as religious paintings by major artists working in and around Florence between the mid-13th and the late 16th century.

The Gallery is particularly famous for its sculptures by Michelangelo: the Prisoners, the St.Matthew and, especially, the statue of David which was transferred here, to the specially designed tribune, from Piazza della Signoria in 1873.

The museum is open from Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15-18:50.

Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze
Via Ricasoli 58-60
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/accademia

The Uffizi is one of the oldest and most famous museums in the world and a must-see for any visitor to Florence. Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings comprises several universally acclaimed masterpieced, including works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. German, Dutch and Flemish masters are also well represented with important works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens.

The Uffizi is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi. The palazzo was erected by Giorgio Vasari between 1560 and 1580 to house the administrative offices of the Tuscan State. The Gallery was created by Grand-duke Francesco I and subsequently enriched by various members of the Medici family, who were great collectors of paintings, sculpture and works of art. The collection was rearranged and enlarged by the Lorraine Grand-dukes, who succeeded the Medici, and finally by the Italian State.

The museum is open from Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15-18:50.

Uffizi
Loggiato degli Uffizi, 6
Florence, Italy 50122
+39 055 294883
www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/musei/uffizi

This morning we had a private tour of the Vasari Corridor with a guide from the Uffizi, Patrizia, who was very knowledgeable and greatly added to the experience. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, and it was really a fantastic tour. The collection of self portraits in the main corridors is unrivaled in the world. They also keep a damaged painting from the bombing of the Uffizi in May, 1993, on a landing in the stairs leading down to the corridor as a remembrance to those who died. There are some other paintings and sculptures in the corridors leading to and from the main passageway over the river that are worthwhile also. After crossing the river you see the private balcony of the Medici's in Santa Felicita, and are let out into the Boboli garden by a little door just to the left of Buontalenti's Grotta Grande.

You are not allowed to photograph the collection - all the shots above are from the windows along the way.

Visiting the Vasari Corridor is something I have always wanted to do but haven't because of the rather prohibitive price (usually somewhere around €90 per person) and the need to go with a tour group. Recently I was tipped off by a post on the LonelyPlanet Italy forum that the corridor was actually open to the public (which is contrary to the "status quo").

The official website of the "Corridoio Vasariano" is here: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/musei/vasariano/. It is well hidden on the site, and only in Italian. On that page they have the details of the opening dates and times (see the box), as well as a phone number. We tried that number for 2 days and only got a busy signal. So we went by the Uffizi ticket window and asked. We were give another number that was pulled from some papers that seemed to be well hidden under a telephone. For some reason, the fact that you can visit the corridor is not something the Italians are publicizing.

The Vasari Corridor will be open to the public until the 18th of December. When it reopens is anyone's guess at this point, though I will inquire about that when we visit. If you want to try to make a reservation, call immediately - the Italian country code is 39, and the number to call is 055 294883. Note that the number given in the box and on their website is not correct! (It may work - but it didn't for us). The 4:30 time is already fully booked, but maybe you can get one of the other times. When we called a couple of days ago the first available day was November 19th, so if you are planning a visit between then and December 18th you may be in luck. The best part - tickets are only €10 plus a €4 reservation fee.

Since we are Friends of the Uffizi (I will post about this soon) our entrance is actually free, and we will have to pay the reservation fee on the day we visit. Good luck!

Today is February 18th, an important date for the cultural legacy of this great city. 266 years ago, on February 18th, 1743 Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici died and left all the holdings of her dynastic family to the city of Florence.

Visitors today walk through the family palace and admire the masterpieces of Renaissance art thanks to a pact that Anna Maria Luisa signed in 1737 that ensured that these Medici monuments would be protected by the Florentine state.

As the daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III, her fate, like all young women of noble origin, was to be married off into a foreign family with potential for political alliances and economical gains. She was sent to Düsseldorf and her arranged marriage to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine took place on June 5, 1691.

Their seem to be several "official" websites to many of Florence's museums and churches. Sometimes it is just overlapping bureaucracy (the Commune may have a site, the state may have a site, the museum itself may have a site), and sometimes it is people pretending to be an official site, either to try to get you to click on an ad or book a hotel or something else that either makes them money or brings their website traffic. Then there are the hundreds (if not thousands) of small sites who have their own listings and descriptions of some or all of the museums in Florence (like this one!). Below are links and brief descriptions to the official sites of the major museums of Florence: