Florence and the Medici Tours / Palazzo Medici Riccardi

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First Medici residence in Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi is the prototype of the Florentine Renaissance palace.

Designed by architect Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, it was the family home for four generations. The imposing rustication of the external façade, gradually lightened on the two upper floors, hides an elegant porticoed courtyard inside. At Palazzo Medici the young Michelangelo Buonarroti was hosted by Lorenzo the Magnificent and began his extraordinary career as an artist.

In the inner courtyard we will discover the rhythmic elegance of the architecture, punctuated by tall columns supporting round arches in axis with the mullioned windows on the upper floor. In front of the main entrance we will admire the statue of Orpheus and Cerberus by Baccio Bandinelli, which marks the passage to the second court of the palace.

Going up to the first floor from a monumental stone staircase we reach the Chapel of the Magi, entirely decorated on the walls by a splendid cycle of frescoes. This is the famous Cavalcade of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli, fantastic re-enactment of the journey of the Magi to Bethlehem and at the same time a celebration of the Medici's political role in the public life of the time.

The Luca Giordano Gallery, magnificently frescoed on the vault by the Neapolitan artist, is the most notable 17th-century intervention of the palace, dating back to the period when it became property of the Riccardi family.