Explorar Florencia

Orsanmichele is a 14th-century building that began as a grain market and was converted into a church, with Andrea Orcagna's marble tabernacle inside. Niches on its outer walls hold statues of the guilds' patron saints by Ghiberti, Donatello and Nanni di Banco, now copies; the originals are displayed in the museum on the upper floors.

Palazzo Strozzi is a Renaissance palace begun in 1489 for the banker Filippo Strozzi, with rusticated stone façades on three streets and an arcaded inner courtyard. Today the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi uses its courtyard and piano nobile for temporary art exhibitions, ranging from Renaissance masters to contemporary artists.

Palazzo Vecchio is Florence's town hall on Piazza della Signoria, built from 1299 as the seat of the city's government and crowned by the 94-metre Arnolfo Tower. Its museum covers the Medici apartments and the Salone dei Cinquecento with frescoes by Giorgio Vasari; the tower and the battlement walkway can be climbed.

The Bargello is a national museum in the Palazzo del Bargello, a fortified palace begun in 1255 for the city's magistrates and later used as police headquarters and prison. Opened in 1865, it holds Renaissance sculpture by Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini and Giambologna, along with ivories, enamels, majolica, bronzes and arms.

The Uffizi Gallery is an art museum in the U-shaped building that Giorgio Vasari began in 1560 as offices for Cosimo I de' Medici, between Piazza della Signoria and the Arno. Its rooms show painting from the 13th to the 20th century, including Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and ancient sculpture from the Medici collections.

The Basilica of San Lorenzo is the parish church of the Medici, rebuilt from 1419 to designs by Filippo Brunelleschi; its rough stone façade was never finished. A visit includes the church with Donatello's bronze pulpits, Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy decorated by Donatello, the cloisters, the treasury and the crypt. The Medici Chapels behind it are a separate museum.

The Medici Chapels are the burial chapels of the Medici family at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, a state museum since 1869. The visit leads from the crypt to the domed Chapel of the Princes, lined with coloured marble and hardstone inlay, and on to Michelangelo's New Sacristy of 1519–1534 with his figures of Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk.

Palazzo Medici Riccardi is the palace Michelozzo designed for Cosimo de' Medici, built from 1444; the Riccardi family later bought and enlarged it, and it now houses the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum. Visitors see the arcaded courtyard and garden, the Chapel of the Magi frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli and Luca Giordano's Gallery of Mirrors.

Santa Maria Novella is the Dominican basilica near Florence's main railway station, begun in the late 13th century and consecrated in 1420; Leon Battista Alberti completed its marble façade in 1470. Inside are Masaccio's Holy Trinity, Giotto's crucifix and Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Tornabuoni Chapel, and the visit includes the cloisters and the Spanish Chapel.

Leonardo Interactive Museum is a private museum in Via dei Servi, between the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Cathedral, open for more than twenty years. It shows working full-size reconstructions of machines from Leonardo da Vinci's codices, such as a tank, a catapult, an aerial screw and an ornithopter, which visitors may operate themselves.

Museo de' Medici is a museum of the history of the Medici family, from Lorenzo the Magnificent to Anna Maria Luisa, the last of the dynasty. Since 2023 it occupies Brunelleschi's Rotunda, a centrally planned building begun in 1432 and left unfinished for five centuries, and rooms of the former monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Santo Spirito is an Augustinian basilica in the Oltrarno, begun in 1444 to designs by Filippo Brunelleschi and finished after his death; its plain façade faces Piazza Santo Spirito. The interior has grey pietra serena columns and a ring of side chapels, and the sacristy by Giuliano da Sangallo holds a wooden crucifix carved by the young Michelangelo.

The Basilica of Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church of Florence, begun in 1294 on Piazza Santa Croce. It holds the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini, chapels frescoed by Giotto, and the Pazzi Chapel by Brunelleschi in the cloister; the marble façade was added in the 19th century.

Palazzo Pitti is a Renaissance palace south of the Arno, begun in 1458 for the banker Luca Pitti and later the main residence of the Medici grand dukes and then of the House of Savoy. It now houses the Palatine Gallery, the Royal Apartments, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Fashion and Costume, with the Boboli Gardens behind it.

The Great Synagogue of Florence, on Via Luigi Carlo Farini, was completed in 1882 in Italian and Moorish Revival styles, with a green dome and a painted interior. The Jewish Museum of Florence, inside the building, shows ceremonial objects and the history of the city's Jewish community from its first settlement to the post-war years.

San Miniato al Monte is a Romanesque basilica on one of the highest points of Florence, above Piazzale Michelangelo, begun in 1013 over the tomb of the martyr St Minias. Its white and green marble façade carries a 13th-century mosaic of Christ, and Olivetan Benedictine monks in the adjoining abbey sing their services in Gregorian chant.

The Museo del Calcio is the museum of the Italian national football team, in a rebuilt farmhouse at the Italian Football Federation's training centre in Coverciano. Opened in 2000, it displays shirts, balls, medals, boots and cups from the national team's history since the 1920s, alongside a digital archive of photographs and films.