Basilica of San Lorenzo
Every major Medici from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III is buried here — in a church Brunelleschi designed but never saw completed.
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Commissioned in 1419 by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the complex packs three Renaissance giants into one site: Brunelleschi drew up the church, Donatello filled the Old Sacristy with sculpture and decoration, and Michelangelo designed both the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy. The building was already considered a milestone in Renaissance architecture before it was even finished.
What to look for
- Old Sacristy (Sagrestia Vecchia): Brunelleschi's geometry with Donatello's interior decoration and sculpture on the walls
- Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Laurentiana): Michelangelo's design, built to house the Medici collection
- Medici Chapels: includes the New Sacristy based on Michelangelo's designs and the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes)
Sits at the center of Florence's main market district — the San Lorenzo stalls make the approach impossible to miss; plan for the church and chapels as separate tickets.
Basilica of San Lorenzo is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Florence, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Florence pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Florence
- Michelangelo's DavidCarved for a cathedral roofline, then conscripted into politics — a 5.17-metre marble figure that became a republic's defiant face.
- Uffizi GalleryGiorgio Vasari built this as government offices in 1560; the Medici moved their art collection upstairs, and the last heiress gave it all to Florence under a formal family pact when the dynasty died out.
- Florence Cathedral (Duomo di Firenze)Brunelleschi's dome has been the largest masonry dome ever built since 1436 — and nothing has beaten it.
- Palazzo PittiA banker's act of one-upmanship that the Medici, Napoleon, and Italian kings all ended up calling home.
- Ponte VecchioThe only bridge in Florence spared from destruction during World War II — and it has been lined with shops since the Middle Ages.
- Palazzo VecchioFlorence's 1299 town hall was built on a Ghibelline rival's rubble — and the battlements were engineered to drop boiling liquid on anyone who showed up uninvited.