MICHELANGELO AND THE MEDICI DYNASTIC MAUSOLEUM
A museum in the heart of San Lorenzo where architecture, sculpture and precious stones reveal the relationship between art, power, dynastic memory and human destiny.
The Medici Chapels in Florence are the burial place of the Medici dynasty and a fundamental part of the Laurentian Medici Complex. The route includes the Medici Crypt, the monumental Chapel of the Princes and Michelangelo’s New Sacristy. The so-called Secret Room of Michelangelo instead requires a specific ticket and separate booking.
A LIVE ART-HISTORY LESSON IN FRONT OF THE WORKS
Visit the Medici Chapels with Giulia Bacci
I am Giulia Bacci, a licensed tour guide and art historian. In the New Sacristy we can read together how Michelangelo constructs space, turns marble into figures of time and distinguishes real portraiture from ideal representation. In the Chapel of the Princes, we observe how precious materials and political symbols celebrate grand-ducal power.
MEMORY, ART AND POWER
Why visit the Medici Chapels
01
The burial place of the Medici
Crypts, tombs and dynastic monuments turned San Lorenzo into the principal setting of Medici family memory.
02
Michelangelo as architect and sculptor
In the New Sacristy, space, light and sculpture form a single work devoted to time, life and death.
03
Marble, hardstone and dynastic celebration
The Chapel of the Princes uses precious materials, coats of arms and monumental scale to express grand-ducal power.
A COMPLEX BUILT OVER MANY CENTURIES
The Medici Chapels within the Laurentian Medici Complex
Basilica and cloister
The Basilica of San Lorenzo, connected with the Medici since the fifteenth century, contains Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy and introduces the relationship between family, church and neighbourhood. The Canons’ Cloister links the religious, conventual and cultural spaces.
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library preserves the Medici manuscript collection and includes the celebrated vestibule designed by Michelangelo. It has its own entrance and visiting arrangements.
Medici Chapels Museum
The state museum has an entrance separate from the basilica, in Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini. The route leads from the crypt to the Chapel of the Princes and New Sacristy.
FROM FAMILY BURIALS TO A STATE MUSEUM
The history of the Medici Chapels
The relationship between the Medici and San Lorenzo began in the fifteenth century, when the family chose the basilica as its principal religious and burial site. Over time, chapels, tombs and artistic commissions turned the complex into a representation of dynastic history.
After the deaths of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to create the New Sacristy. He worked between 1519 and 1534, combining architecture and sculpture in a programme that remained partly unfinished.
In the seventeenth century, the grand-ducal dynasty began the Chapel of the Princes as a monumental mausoleum. Marble and hardstone revetments, the vast dome and coats of arms of Tuscan cities transformed funerary memory into political celebration.
In 1737 Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last representative of the grand-ducal line, helped preserve the family collections in Florence through the Family Pact. In 1869 the Medici Chapels were declared a national monument and became a state museum.
15th century
San Lorenzo becomes the principal religious and burial place of the Medici family.
1519–1534
Michelangelo designs the New Sacristy and the Medici funerary monuments.
From 1604
Construction begins on the monumental Chapel of the Princes.
1737
The grand-ducal dynasty ends and Anna Maria Luisa safeguards the family heritage.
1869
The chapels are declared a national monument and become a state museum.
FOUR SPACES, FOUR WAYS OF TELLING MEDICI HISTORY
What to see at the Medici Chapels in Florence
The route alternates underground burial spaces, grand-ducal celebration, Michelangelo’s masterpieces and an exceptionally fragile room. Each area requires a different way of looking.
01
Medici Crypt
Grand dukes and members of the dynasty are buried here. Reliquaries, inscriptions and monuments help reconstruct the family story without losing sight of the political role of burial.
02
Chapel of the Princes
A grand-ducal mausoleum covered in marble and hardstone, designed to astonish visitors and celebrate Medici rule over Tuscany.
03
Michelangelo’s New Sacristy
Architecture and sculpture form a single meditation on time: the dukes, allegories and Medici Madonna interact with light and space.
04
Michelangelo’s Secret Room
A small room with wall drawings attributed to Michelangelo, accessible only with a specific ticket and compulsory reservation.
THE BURIALS OF THE DYNASTY
The Medici Crypt
The crypt introduces the museum through the most tangible dimension of family memory. It contains the burials of the grand dukes and their relatives, from Cosimo I to Gian Gastone, together with members of other branches of the dynasty.
Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Maria Salviati recall the family line from which Cosimo I was born. Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, last representative of the grand-ducal branch, is also commemorated by a modern bronze monument.
There is no need to memorise every burial. It is more useful to observe how names, titles, coats of arms and reliquaries turn genealogy into a political and religious narrative.
The crypt also clarifies the difference between the actual burial places and the monumental cenotaphs displayed in the Chapel of the Princes.
THE MAUSOLEUM OF THE GRAND DUKES
The Chapel of the Princes
Marble and hardstone
The walls are faced with coloured marbles and hardstone inlay. Polished surfaces turn natural materials into a continuous design, almost a painting made of stone.
The grand-ducal workshop
The building project encouraged the development of the grand-ducal workshop specialised in Florentine hardstone inlay. Technique, court organisation and dynastic celebration became inseparable.
Territory and power
The coats of arms of cities in the Grand Duchy turn the mausoleum into a political image of Medici Tuscany. Pietro Benvenuti decorated the dome between 1828 and 1837.
The rich, enveloping monumentality of the Chapel of the Princes is intentionally different from the tense equilibrium of the New Sacristy. The first celebrates grand-ducal power; the second leads towards a more universal meditation on time and death.
ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE AS A SINGLE WORK
Michelangelo and the New Sacristy
The New Sacristy was commissioned by the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII and created by Michelangelo between 1519 and 1534. It repeats the dimensions of Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy while radically transforming its rhythm, proportions and spatial tension.
The monuments to the two dukes present idealised images: Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, is associated with Day and Night; Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, with Dawn and Dusk. These figures do more than illustrate the four times of day: they make the relentless cycle of earthly life visible.
On the opposite wall, Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child is flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of the Medici. The group stands above the burial place of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano.
Light, niches, frames and sculptures are not separate elements. Michelangelo creates a space in which the human body, time and the memory of the dead become parts of the same meditation.
AN ESSENTIAL DISTINCTION
Where is Lorenzo the Magnificent buried?
Lorenzo the Magnificent and Giuliano
Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de’ Medici are buried together beneath the Medici Madonna with Saints Cosmas and Damian. The tomb has no large individual portrait of the Magnificent.
Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino
The seated figure in a contemplative pose is Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, the Magnificent’s grandson. Dawn and Dusk recline on his sarcophagus.
Giuliano, Duke of Nemours
The duke represented in a more active pose is Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, son of the Magnificent. Day and Night belong to his monument.
A FRAGILE ROOM WITH STRICTLY LIMITED ACCESS
Michelangelo’s Secret Room
Below the New Sacristy lies a small room containing numerous wall drawings attributed to Michelangelo. Executed in different materials and often overlapping, they include anatomical studies, poses and references to the artist’s works. Not every mark has the same degree of attribution and the subject should therefore be presented cautiously.
The room is regulated separately: it requires a specific ticket, compulsory booking and has extremely limited capacity. The ticket also includes admission to the Medici Chapels Museum. The visit currently lasts 15 minutes and admits no more than four people per time slot.
Access is not automatically included in an ordinary guided tour. Days, times, availability, age limits and accessibility conditions must be checked on the official website before planning the visit.
PLANNING YOUR VISIT
Medici Chapels: opening hours, tickets and booking
01
Opening hours
Monday closed. Tuesday to Sunday: 8:15 am–6:50 pm. Last admission is 40 minutes before closing.
02
Tickets
Current ordinary ticket: €11. Reduced admission follows current regulations. Optional ordinary booking: €3. Combined tickets are available under the museum’s conditions.
03
Free admission
The first Sunday of every month and other national free-entry dates announced by the Ministry. Reservations and activities may be suspended on free-admission days.
04
Secret Room
Specific ticket, compulsory reservation and very limited capacity. Prices, dates, times and availability must be checked when booking.
Please note: opening hours, prices, special openings and access arrangements may change. Always consult the official Medici Chapels website before visiting.
THE TIME REQUIRED DEPENDS ON THE ROUTE
How long does a visit to the Medici Chapels take?
An ordinary visit takes approximately one hour. The time may increase according to the participants’ interests, visitor numbers, depth of explanation and possible access to the Secret Room. It should not be treated as a rigid limit.
THE WORKS ARE UNDERSTOOD BY LOOKING AT THEM TOGETHER
Visit the Medici Chapels with an art historian
A visit with Giulia becomes a live art-history lesson. The route may stand alone or form part of her guided tours in Florence and may be linked with other museums in Florence.
Space and architecture
How Michelangelo responds to Brunelleschi and transforms proportions, frames, niches and light.
The allegories of time
How to read Day, Night, Dawn and Dusk without reducing them to simple personifications.
Ideal portraits and identity
Why the dukes are not represented as realistic portraits and how to distinguish the different Lorenzos and Giulianos.
Hardstone and politics
How precious materials, coats of arms and cenotaphs construct grand-ducal celebration.
San Lorenzo and its neighbourhood
How to connect the chapels, basilica, library, market and urban history.
Personalised routes
Tours for one person, couples, families, small groups, associations and cultural groups.
COLOURS, COATS OF ARMS AND FAMILY STORIES
The Medici Chapels for families and children
Monumental tombs, coats of arms, coloured stones, allegorical figures and Medici family stories can also engage children. Language, duration and depth are adapted to age without oversimplifying the works. See also Giulia’s family tours in Florence.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Questions about the Medici Chapels and private tours
What are the Medici Chapels?
They are a state museum and the principal burial place of the Medici dynasty beside the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
Where are the Medici Chapels?
The museum entrance is in Piazza di Madonna degli Aldobrandini 6, behind the Basilica of San Lorenzo.
Are the Medici Chapels part of San Lorenzo?
They belong to the same Laurentian Medici Complex, but the museum and the Basilica of San Lorenzo have separate entrances and tickets.
What can you see at the Medici Chapels?
The Medici Crypt, Chapel of the Princes, Michelangelo’s New Sacristy and, with a separate ticket and reservation, the Secret Room.
Where is Lorenzo the Magnificent buried?
Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano are buried beneath the Medici Madonna with Saints Cosmas and Damian.
Which works by Michelangelo are in the New Sacristy?
The ducal monuments with Day, Night, Dawn and Dusk, the Medici Madonna and the architecture of the New Sacristy. Read more about Michelangelo in Florence.
What do Day, Night, Dawn and Dusk represent?
They are allegories of the times of day and of the relentless passing of human time, placed on the sarcophagi of the two dukes.
Can Michelangelo’s Secret Room be visited?
Yes, but only with a specific ticket, compulsory reservation and extremely limited availability.
How long does the visit take?
Approximately one hour, although the duration varies according to interests, visitor numbers, route and access to the Secret Room.
What are the opening hours?
The museum is currently closed on Monday and open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 am to 6:50 pm, with last admission 40 minutes earlier.
How much is the ticket?
The ordinary ticket is currently €11; reductions, combined tickets and booking fees should be checked on the official website.
Are the Medici Chapels free on the first Sunday?
Yes, they participate in the monthly free-admission Sunday. Reservations and activities may be suspended on free days.
Is booking required?
Ordinary admission may be booked but reservation is optional; it is compulsory for the Secret Room. School groups and special situations follow specific rules.
Can I arrange an individual tour?
Yes. Giulia can prepare a tour for one person or a couple, subject to museum availability and access arrangements.
Does Giulia guide groups and associations?
Yes. Tours can be arranged for small groups, associations and cultural groups within the limits established by the museum.
Is the visit suitable for children?
Yes. The route can be adapted through coats of arms, colours, figures and family stories. See also Giulia’s family tours in Florence.
How can I ask about availability and price?
Send the preferred date or period, number of participants, language, duration and interests through the contact page. You will receive a personalised proposal.
PRIVATE AND PERSONALISED TOUR
Plan a private tour of the Medici Chapels
Send your preferred date or period, number of participants, language, group composition, desired duration and interests. Also indicate whether you would like to visit the Basilica of San Lorenzo or check availability for the Secret Room.
In the form, indicate the preferred date or period, number of participants, language, ages of any children, desired duration, main interests and possible combination with San Lorenzo.
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