Bargello Museum (Museo Nazionale del Bargello)

Housed in the medieval splendor of Florence’s Palazzo della Podestà – once a barracks and subsequently the city’s courts of justice – the National Museum opened in 1865 and showcases an abundance of glorious Renaissance artworks. As befits the oldest public building in the city, it has a fortified façade and a maze-like interior with fine halls, balconies and loggias overlooking an arcaded courtyard with walls smothered by the coats of arms of medieval aristocracy. Displayed in a series of vast apartments are collections of medieval gold work, 16th-century weaponry, a series of bronze animals made for the Medici family and hand-crafted tapestries, but the undoubted star of the Bargello’s collection is the statuary from big names of the Italian Renaissance, which has its birth in Florence. On display are the bronze relief panels created by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti when they were competing for the commission of the baptistery doors in Florence duomo (cathedral) in 1401. Alongside sculpture from Cellini, Andrea della Robbia and Pisano are entire rooms dedicated to the works of Michelangelo – including the exquisite Pitti Tondi – and Donatello, whose works encompass the fabulously effeminate bronze sculpture of David wearing a floral hat. 

Practical Info

Via del Proconsolo, 4. Open daily 8.15am–5pm (closed first, third and fifth Monday each month. Admission for adults costs €4 and concessions cost €2. Additional charges for specific exhibitions. Get there on foot 10 minutes’ walk from Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence’s pedestrianized centro storico.