In the year 1250 the city of Florence created the office of Capitano del Popolo. The Capitano was a kind of popular tribune who guarded the interests of the people. In 1255 a public palazzo was built for him, the first of its kind in Florence. The architect was Lapo…
There can be no doubt that the Florentines are immensely proud of the complex of San Marco. When I went to pick up my tickets for a number of attractions in the city, the man in the ticket booth explicitly spoke of “the beautiful San Marco”. The complex comprises a…
The church and convent of San Domenico are not located in the centre of Fiesole, but in the lower part of the town. My recommendation would be to first visit the attractions in the centre – the convent of San Francesco, the Duomo and the archaeological museum – and then…
Long, long ago I had read some information about the Cappella Rucellai, but my memory was extremely hazy. When during a walk in Florence I suddenly saw a sign that directed me to the chapel, I decided to use Google to find out more about the Cappella Rucellai. I liked…
The basilica of San Lorenzo is among the oldest and most famous churches of Florence. The church is immediately recognisable by its unfinished façade and the enormous dome of the chapel behind the choir, the famed Cappella dei Principi. There is probably no church in Florence that has a closer…
The church of San Salvatore in Lauro itself is not that interesting. I nevertheless really wanted to visit it, and that had everything to do with an object that can be found in the adjacent convent. That object is the tomb of Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447). It used to be…
An old legend claims that Florence’s beautiful Baptistery of San Giovanni was originally a temple of Mars, the Roman god of war. The Roman emperor Augustus supposedly had it built to celebrate the subjugation of nearby Fiesole (Faesulae in those days) and the early Christians later converted it into a…
In April of 2016, I saw the “art movie” Florence and the Uffizi Gallery at the cinema. It featured the actor Simon Merrells as Lorenzo “Il Magnifico” de’ Medici and discussed the highlights of Florentine Renaissance art. The movie dedicated quite a few minutes to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, the…
This post is about the Brancacci Chapel, a famous chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Normally, I would write a post about the church and then add a few lines about the chapels. For the Brancacci Chapel, I am going to turn that around. This post…