Palazzo Medici Riccardi
The building that taught Florence what a Renaissance palace should look like — read its facade from the ground up.
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Built for Cosimo de' Medici between 1444 and 1484, Michelozzo designed the facade as a visual argument: three stories of decreasing height shift from heavy rusticated stonework at street level to refined ashlar above, drawing the eye upward to a massive capping cornice. Michelangelo later replaced the walled-up ground-floor arches with his odd "kneeling windows," their scrolling consoles appearing to physically prop up each sill. Now a museum and the seat of Florence's Metropolitan City administration.
What to look for
- The facade's three horizontal bands, divided by stringcourses — notice how the stonework roughness decreases floor by floor, making the building appear lighter as your eye rises
- Michelangelo's kneeling windows (finestre inginocchiate): scrolling consoles under each sill and a pedimented frame above, set into what looks like a walled-in arched opening
- The central colonnaded courtyard — its open, peristyle-like form descends from Roman precedent filtered through Renaissance cloister design
Operates as both a museum and an active government seat; check current museum opening hours before arriving, as administrative use can affect access.
Palazzo Medici Riccardi 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.