In the previous post - 10 sights of Florence, where you can buy tickets online. Part I - BlogoItaliano has already talked about some popular places in Florence, which you can prepare for a visit ahead of time. In the second part of the post, we will somewhat expand the initial list due to places less famous, but no less remarkable.
In one of the most famous gardens of Florence,Boboli Garden can be reached through the palace of Pity - the former residence of the Florentine kings.
Boboli Gardens of the Pitti Palace
The Boboli Garden, founded by decree of Eleanor Medici in 1554 on the site of a former quarry, was repeatedly rebuilt and modified throughout its existence.
Famous 16th-century Florentine painters and architects Niccolo Pericoli, Bartolomeo Ammanati, Giorgio Vasari and others skillfully turned the Boboli Gardens into a masterpiece of landscape art, in which the parklands are complemented by numerous grottoes, fountains, ponds, marble statues and sculptures. It even has its own Amphitheater and a real Egyptian obelisk.
Architects turned Boboli Gardens into a masterpiece of landscape art
Today the Gardens, spread over five thousand hectares, are not only a popular holiday destination for citizens and tourists, but also serve as a source of inspiration for artists, architects and other creative personalities.
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Chapel of Brancacci (Brancacci Chapel)
The Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine is a stunning example of Renaissance art. Built in 1367 by the wealthy Florentine merchant Piero Brancacci, the family chapel for almost four centuries belonged to the descendants of his family.
In 1422, Felice Brancacci ordered the painting of the Chapel to two masters - the famous artist Masolino da Panicale and the young Masaccio. Their frescoes on the theme of original sin and its atonement, as well as stories from the life of St. Peter, became a kind of painting school for Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Domenico Ghirlandaio and other famous Italian Renaissance artists.
Renaissance artists studied in the frescoes of the Chapel of Brancacci
Best known in Brancacci Chapel is a fresco "The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise" by Masaccio. The fresco still amazes with its strength and sharpness of feelings that the artist put into it.
After Brancacci was declared a state enemy in 1436, work in the Chapel ceased. And only half a century later, the talented Italian artist Filippino Lippi completely completed the unfinished Masaccio cycle of frescoes.
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Archeological Museum
The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is one of the main "treasures" of the city. It contains a rich collection of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman artifacts.
The museum is housed in the palace of Crocetta (Palazzo della Crocetta), built in 1620 for the Tuscan Princess Maria Medici. The basis of the collection was Etruscan exhibits collected by representatives of this famous family.
Some of the exhibits Archaeological Museum of Florence were discovered during the construction of the Medici fortress in Arezzo in 1553. Among the most interesting is the bronze statue of the Chimera of the 5th century BC. with the body of a lion, the head of a goat and a tail in the form of a snake.
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Medici Chapel (Cappelle Medicee)
Behind the church of San Lorenzo, founded in 393, is the Museum-Medici Chapel, which houses the family tomb of the Medici family. The chapel consists of the Crypt, Chapel of the Princes and the New Sacristy of Michelangelo, which the great master built on behalf of one of the Cardinals of the Medici, who later became Pope Clement VII.
Since the Chapel was built as a Mausoleum in order to better convey the mood of sorrow and sadness, Michelangelo mainly used gloomy and muffled tones in its design.
Medici Chapel - the tomb of members of the famous family
Not everything that the great sculptor planned was realized before he left Florence and left for Rome, but the interior elements created by Michelangelo in the Chapel include a bas-relief of the Madonna and Child, statues of the Dukes of Lorenzo and Giuliano, as well as four allegorical sculptures “Day” "," Night "," Morning "and" Evening ".
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Monastery of San Marco
In the square of St. Mark is an old Dominican Convent of San Marco, founded at the beginning of the XII century. The building is adorned with wonderful frescoes by Italian artists of the Early Renaissance. Among the most famous works, it is worth noting the frescoes of Fra Beato Angelico - the Annunciation, The Crucifixion, The Last Judgment, the altar image of the Madonna and Saints, as well as the arcade of San Antonio created by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo.
In the XVI century, one of the rectors of the Monastery was the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, who for some time actually ruled Florence. His cell is well preserved and today is actively visited by tourists. It was in the Monastery of San Marco that, under the influence of the sermons of Savonarola, Mikhail Trivolis, later the Orthodox saint Maxim the Greek, having abandoned his former convictions, began to study theology.
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Useful articles about Florence
- Uffizi Gallery: Italy's most visited museum
- Florence: the most romantic hotels in the center. TOP 5 BlogoItaliano
- How to get from Milan to Florence and from Florence to Milan
- How to get from Venice to Florence and from Florence to Venice
- How to get from Rome to Florence and from Florence to Rome
