Museums in Florence
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo
Originally, a cathedral-builders’ hut was located here. Nowadays, the cathedral-building museum contains one of the most prominent collections of sculptures, including works of art from Donatello (Maria Magdalena) or Michelangelo’s imperfect Pièta. The original- relief and sculptures of the cathedral, the baptistery and the campanile can all be seen here and were, in this way, protected from damage caused by air pollution.
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo
Piazza Duomo
Tel.: 055 23 02 88 5
open from 9.00 – 19.30 o´clock
Sunday from 9.00 – 13.30 Uhr
Galleria degli Uffizi
Like almost all the historic and culturally significant art collections in Florence, the Ufficis (bureaus) are also based on the legacy of the Medici. Legend has it that the Medici bequeathed their entire collection of art treasures to the city under one condition: the treasures should be never sold and should stay in Florence until time immemorial.
In the 16th century, Cosimo de Medici gave the order to build the Ufficis as a section for the main administrative office. The arrangement of the gallery on the upper floor initiated the museum’s modest beginnings and its ordinary run of things.
Other than the Prado and the Louvre, the Gallery degli Uffizi is one of the most popular art galleries in the world and, of course, the most visited museum in Florence. It would not be practical to see every room in the museum, especially not on the same day. Not only that, whirlwind tours do not do justice to the value of the art works, and barely satisfy the visitor who was previously standing so stoically in the long queue at the entrance. One should consider visiting the museum over several days, making a thoughtful selection according to ones interests, or concentrating only on the museum’s highlights.
On the ground floor, amidst the relics of the Romanic Church San Pietro Scheraggio you can see the well-worn frescoes of Andrea del Castagno’s “Famous Men and Women”.
In the 45 halls of the visitor’s gallery, located on the second floor, you can encounter masterpieces of all eras. The particular compartments are arranged chronologically, geographically or by art movements, but you must be aware that the original arrangement of the collections and halls has not been completely replaced since the bomb attack in 1933.
Antique sculptures (for example “The Medici-Venus”), Sandro Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus”, a Leonardo da Vinci- and a Michelangelo hall are all waiting for you, but also other great Italian masters like Raffael, Bellini or Tizian are just as numerously displayed as are works by Dürer, Rubens, Holbein, Cranach and Rembrandt.
The intersecting hallway Corridorio Vasaranio, which leads between the Ufficis and the Palazzo Pitt over the Ponte Vecchio, is also well worth seeing. Here, art works from the 17th - 20th century are displayed, including the popular self-portraits of Raffael, Rembrandt and Rubens. A tour through the hallway is only possible by prior appointment.
Galleria degli Uffizi
Loggiato degli Uffizi 6
Tel.: 055 23 88 65 1
Monday – Sunday from 8.30 – 18.30
Galleria Palatina
In the Palazzo Pitti, paintings of the High Renaissance and Baroque are presented, amongst others, works of Raffael, Tizian and Tintoretto.The ticket for the palace gallery also allows one to visit the once private rooms of the Grand Dukes.
Galleria Palatina, Piazza Pitti
Museo di San Marco
In San Marco, you can admire the spectacle of Fra Angelicos well-known frescoes of the Proclamation, Assumption and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary.
Museo di San Marco
Piazza San Marco 1
Tel.: 055 23 88 608
open from 8.15 – 13.50 o´clock
Saturday from 8.15 – 18.50 o´clock
Sunday from 8.15 – 19.00 o´clock
Galleria dell’Accademia
An art school, originally founded by the Grand Duke Leopold 1st, was contained in this facility, and it began by collecting art objects as illustrative material for their students. Later on, the rooms functioned as a depository for evacuated art works of other museums. Nowadays, the collection covers Russian Icons of the 17th century and paintings of Florentine painters of the 13th – 16 century, in addition to the Byzantine treasures. The Academy’s piece de resistance is, of course, Michelangelo’s original David, which is presented under the museum’s glass dome in all of its astonishing 180 tons and 4 metres high glory.
Galleria dell’Accademia
Via Ricasoli 58 – 60
Tel.: 055 23 88 60 9
open from 8.15 – 18.50 o´clock
closed on mondays
In summertime:
Saturday from 8.15 – 22.00 o´clock
Museo Archeologico
Besides the Greek, Roman and Egyptian art works, the museum especially lures the visitors with the largest collection of Etruscan discoveries in the whole of Tuscany. The Arringatore (statue of an orator) of the Trasimenian Lake, sarcophaguses, urns, burial objects etc. from Roselle, Volterra and Populonia can all be seen here . The most remarkable work, however, is the original of the Chimeras of Arezzo discovered in 1555, a mythical creature with a lions head and body, a Billy Goat’s head growing out its back and its tail forming into the head of a snake at the tip.
Museo Archeologico
Via della Colonna 38
Tel.: 055 23 57 5
Mo open from 14.00 – 19.00 o´clock
Tu and Th from 8.30 – 19.00 o´clock
We and Fr from 8.30 – 14.00 o´clock
colsed on sundays
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
At first the building of the Palazzo Bargello was used as a town hall, later on it was a prison and nowadays, Tuscan sculptures from the 14th – 16th century are presented here including Donatello’s brazen David, Michelangelo’s Bacchus and works of Andrea and Giovanni della Robia.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Via del Proconsolo
Tel.: 055 23 38 86 06
open from 8.15 – 13.50 o´clock
Other museums in Florence
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
Via Cavour 1
Tel.: 055 27 60 340
open from 9.00 – 19.00 o´clock
closed on wednesdays
Galleria dello Spedale degli Innocenti
Piazza SS. Annunziata 12
Tel.: 055 24 91 708
Mo – Sa from 8.30 – 19.00 o´clock
Sunday from 8.30 – 14.00 o´clock
Museo dell’opificio delle Pietre Dure
Via degli Alfani 78
Tel.: 055 26 51 11
Mo – Sa from 8.15 – 14.00 o´clock
closed on sundays
Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce
Piazza Santa Croce 16
Tel.: 055 24 46 19
open from 9.00 – 19.00 o´clock
Galleria Palatina
Piazza Pitti
Tel.: 055 23 88 61 4
Tuesday – Sunday 8.15 – 18.50 o´clock
closed on mondays
Museo degli Argenti
Piazza Pitti
Tel.: 055 23 88 70 9
open from 8.15 – 13.50 o´clock
closed on mondays
Galleria del Costume
Piazza Pitti
Tel.: 055 23 88 713
open from 8.15 – 13.50 o´clock
closed on mondays
Museo delle Porcellane
Giardino di Boboli
Tel.: 055 23 88 709
open from 9.00 – 13.30 o´clock
closed on mondays
Galleria d’Arte Moderna
Piazza PItti
Tel.: 055 23 88 616
Tuesday – Saturday from 8.15 – 18.50 o´clock
Sunday from 8.15 – 13.50
closed on mondays
San Miniato al Monte
Via Monte alle Croci
Tel.: 055 23 42 731
In summertime:
8.00 – 19.30 o´clock
In wintertime:
8.00 – 12.30 und 14.30 – 19.30 o´clock
