Florence Monday Museum Tour: Medici Chapels or San Marco Museum
Florence, Italy
Rating: 
Trip Type: Museum Tickets & Passes
Duration: 60 minutes
Want to immerse yourself in Renaissance art on a Monday when many of Florence’s big-name museums are closed? Then take a walking tour of the Medici Chapels or San Marco Museum: two of the city’s laudable yet lesser-known museums. Learn about the powerful Medici family while venturing through the Renaissance art–bedecked chapels and crypt, or explore the San Marco Museum, famous for its works by Beato Angelico, one of the most important Renaissance artists.
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Want to immerse yourself in Renaissance art on a Monday when many of Florence’s big-name museums are closed? Then take a walking tour of the Medici Chapels or San Marco Museum: two of the city’s laudable yet lesser-known museums. Learn about the powerful Medici family while venturing through the Renaissance art–bedecked chapels and crypt, or explore the San Marco Museum, famous for its works by Beato Angelico, one of the most important Renaissance artists.Select a tour of Florence’s Medici Chapels or San Marco Museum when booking. Both options start outside each museum and include the entrance fee and a 1-hour walking tour. After your tour finishes, you can stay inside the museum for longer to explore independently, if you wish.
Medici Chapels Tour:Located at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the two chapels form the burial site of 49 members of the Medici family — the bourgeois dynasty that controlled Florence throughout much of the Renaissance period. Learn about their influence and political clout from your guide while admiring the highlights of their mausoleum.
Adorned with marble and granite ornamentation, the interiors of the Medici Chapels are also home to sculptures by Michelangelo, one of the most influential Renaissance artists. Admire his famous Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day and Madonna and Child sculptures on several different sarcophagi inside the New Sacristy, and stare in wonder at the intricate inlays of precious gems inside the Princes’ Chapel. After learning about the artwork, visit the crypt beneath the chapel to see where the Medici family were laid to rest.
San Marco Museum Tour:Before entering San Marco Museum, admire the statuesque exterior with your guide. The building comprises a church and a 15th-century Dominican convent, with the latter considered one of the most distinguished examples of Florentine architecture. Hear how the convent, where the Dominican monks still live, was commissioned by Cosimo I de 'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and renovated by Michelozzo — one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance.
Head inside with your guide, then begin your tour in the elegant Cloister of St Anthony. Admire the age-old doors decorated with stunning frescoes before continuing on to an ancient hall filled with works by Dominican monk Beato Angelico, one of the greatest exponents of the Florentine Renaissance.
Next, explore the Great Refectory, the old kitchen and the services areas, which display the paintings of Fra Bartolomeo, another important painter and Dominican monk who lived in the convent in the early 16th-century.
After, visit the monks’ cells to marvel at the breathtaking frescoes painted by Beato Angelico for the confrères monks. You’ll also visit the cell where the famous friar Girolamo Savonarola lived. A passionate speaker, Savonarola preached against the corruption and decay of morals of the clergy, ending his life hanged and burned at the stake in Piazza della Signoria.
Your tour then concludes inside the library.
Medici Chapels Tour:Located at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the two chapels form the burial site of 49 members of the Medici family — the bourgeois dynasty that controlled Florence throughout much of the Renaissance period. Learn about their influence and political clout from your guide while admiring the highlights of their mausoleum.
Adorned with marble and granite ornamentation, the interiors of the Medici Chapels are also home to sculptures by Michelangelo, one of the most influential Renaissance artists. Admire his famous Dawn and Dusk, Night and Day and Madonna and Child sculptures on several different sarcophagi inside the New Sacristy, and stare in wonder at the intricate inlays of precious gems inside the Princes’ Chapel. After learning about the artwork, visit the crypt beneath the chapel to see where the Medici family were laid to rest.
San Marco Museum Tour:Before entering San Marco Museum, admire the statuesque exterior with your guide. The building comprises a church and a 15th-century Dominican convent, with the latter considered one of the most distinguished examples of Florentine architecture. Hear how the convent, where the Dominican monks still live, was commissioned by Cosimo I de 'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and renovated by Michelozzo — one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance.
Head inside with your guide, then begin your tour in the elegant Cloister of St Anthony. Admire the age-old doors decorated with stunning frescoes before continuing on to an ancient hall filled with works by Dominican monk Beato Angelico, one of the greatest exponents of the Florentine Renaissance.
Next, explore the Great Refectory, the old kitchen and the services areas, which display the paintings of Fra Bartolomeo, another important painter and Dominican monk who lived in the convent in the early 16th-century.
After, visit the monks’ cells to marvel at the breathtaking frescoes painted by Beato Angelico for the confrères monks. You’ll also visit the cell where the famous friar Girolamo Savonarola lived. A passionate speaker, Savonarola preached against the corruption and decay of morals of the clergy, ending his life hanged and burned at the stake in Piazza della Signoria.
Your tour then concludes inside the library.
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