Medici Chapels
Michelangelo's first building — designed as a dynastic mausoleum, then abandoned unfinished when he left for Rome.
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The New Sacristy (1519–1524) is where Michelangelo first worked as an architect, designing both the structure and its marble monuments. He departed for Rome in 1534 and never returned; the statues were finally placed by Niccolò Tribolo in 1545. The larger Chapel of the Princes next door was built by the Medici Grand Dukes as a separate declaration of dynastic power.
What to look for
- Four reclining marble figures personifying the times of day, arranged across the tomb monuments — the sculptural formula that influenced generations of artists after Michelangelo
- The Madonna and Child, the first piece Michelangelo completed for the project, still in place above the Medici burial slab
- The gray pietra serena architectural grid against whitewashed walls — Michelangelo's deliberate echo of Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy on the other side of San Lorenzo
The chapels are an extension of the Basilica of San Lorenzo but accessed separately — plan for both the New Sacristy and the Chapel of the Princes in the same visit.
Medici Chapels 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.