Museo di Palazzo Vecchio

Piazza della Signoria

Palazzo della Signoria, better known as Palazzo Vecchio, has been the symbol of the civic power of  Florence for over seven centuries. Built between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth to house the city’s supreme governing body, the Priori delle Arti and the Gonfalonier of Justice, over time it has been subject to a series of extensions and transformations. Its current appearance is mainly due to the splendid restoration work and interior decoration carried out in the mid-sixteenth century to adapt the building to its new function as ducal palace as ordered by Cosimo I de’ Medici. After the transfer of the Medici court to Palazzo Pitti, it continued to host the Guardaroba (where the ceremonial costumes and family treasures were stored) and various governmental offices, until it became the seat of the Florence City Council in 1871.

The visit begins in the Cortile di Michelozzo, the courtyard adorned with stuccoes and frescoes, and continues on the first floor with the Salone dei Cinquecento, where a majestic cycle of pictures celebrates the apotheosis of Cosimo de’ Medici and the city of Florence and a rich array of statues accompany Michelangelo’s celebrated Victory. On the second floor of the museum are the private rooms of the Medici court, all sumptuously decorated and furnished, and among these the marvellous Cappella di Eleonora, the chapel with paintings by Agnolo Bronzino. Important testimonies of the Palazzo’s oldest decorations are kept in the Sala dell’Udienza and the Sala dei Gigli, where the original of Donatello’s Judith is also found. In the Sala delle Carte Geografiche an exceptionally large globe and more than fifty painted panels provide an extraordinary glimpse of all the parts of the world known in the sixteenth century. The mezzanine floor houses a remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance left to the city of Florence by Charles Loeser.

The Quartiere del Mezzanino: Donation Loeser