The National Museum of the Bargello
You can reach the Bargello Museum from Piazza del Duomo. From the back of the cathedral, going down via del Proconsolo. It is located in front of the Badia Fiorentina.
Address: 4 via del Proconsolo.
Opening hours: open every day from 8:45 am to 1:30 pm except Saturday from 8:45 am to 6:30 pm. Closed on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.
Price : 10 € (extra charge for temporary exhibitions)
This 13th century palace housed the Podestà, the elected magistrate (always a foreigner) with executive and judicial powers. Those sentenced to death were executed in the courtyard of the Bargello. In the 16th century the palace became a prison under the authority of the chief of police called the Barigel, hence the name of the museum.
The courtyard is a magnificent achievement of medieval architecture surrounded on 3 sides by a peristyle with solid columns and a staircase leading to the loggia.
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On the first floor you will find the Michelangelo room with 4 of his masterpieces: the Drunken Bacchus, a Madonna and Child, an Appolon (for some David) as well as the busts of Brutus and Perseus. |
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On the second floor you will find works by the greatest sculptors of the Renaissance. Compare Donatello's David, with his pensive expression, with Verrocchio's triumphant one.
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The other rooms are equally worthy of interest: rooms of Islamic art, ivories, terracotta della Robbia.
In the chapel of Santa Maria di Maddalena the frescoes are from the school of Giotto.
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