The best museums Florence - Firenze

A unique, stimulating and interesting interactive museum showcasing Leonardo da Vinci's most important inventions. Visitors can satisfy their curiosity by trying out the mechanisms of the machines designed by Leonardo in his codes, such as the giant tank, the catapult... This well-thought-out interactivity offers a hands-on experience that differs from conventional exhibitions. The museum also features educational laboratories and a well-stocked bookshop.

A place with an atypical history! There was once an oratory dedicated to the Archangel Michael, built in the garden of a Benedictine monastery. Since then, there has been a portico that was enlarged and consolidated in 1337, as the current two-storey structure was built above it to store wheat in the event of famine. In 1380, because of the increasingly intense devotion to an image of the Madonna placed on a pilaster in the portico, the arcades on the ground floor were closed. The portico was thus transformed into an unusual church with two naves, which is now the worthy setting for a splendid marble tabernacle in Gothic style, the work of the Florentine sculptor Andrea Orcagna. This old church, transformed into a grain market and then again into a church, houses a beautiful, albeit somewhat dark, interior of medieval architecture.

Among the statues that adorn the exterior of the Orsanmichele church are those of Lorenzo Ghiberti in bronze, on the side of Arte della Lana Street, representing Saint Matthew, at the corner of Orsanmichele Street, and Santo Stefano. Those of Donatello - Saint George - and Verrocchio - a group with the Unbelief of Saint Thomas - towards Calzaioli Street have been replaced by copies (the originals being at the Bargello Museum). These statues were financed by the Florence merchant corporations, proof that the commercial activity was closely linked to religion and art. A few steps away, stands the imposing Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria.

This exceptional site is a former Dominican convent, one of Florence's spiritual and intellectual lungs in the 15th century, open to the public since 1869. Consecrated in 1443, it has welcomed such outstanding personalities as Fra Angelico, Savonarola, Fra Bartolomeo... and was enlarged by Cosme de Médicis. Housed in the 15th century convent, the work of Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, Cosme le Vieux's favourite architect, the museum pays tribute to Beato Angelico (known as Fra Angelico) who, during his stay there, painted intimate and moving frescos on the walls of each of the 44 cells. Images that are now considered icons. Fra Angelico's wonderful Annunciation is visible there, as well as other works belonging to him from Florentine churches and religious institutions. See also the grandiose and touching Crucifixion in the Chapter Hall.

Among the rooms on the first floor, in addition to the cells painted by Fra Angelico, and the apartment of the prior who was inhabited by Savonarola and where he was arrested in 1498, the three-nave room of the library, considered to be Michelozzo's masterpiece, with the Medici palace, should be noted. It is of great architectural and historical interest, and contains no less than thirty thousand works.
Behind the cloister decorated with frescoes by Fra Angelico, a second cloister, dating from the 15th century and dedicated to Saint Dominic, houses five Dominicans who still perpetuate the monastic tradition today in the heart of the urban whirlwind.