Uffizi Gallery

Interesting facts

The octagonal Tribuna's dome is inlaid with nearly 6,000 mother-of-pearl shells brought from the Indian Ocean, set against a scarlet ground.

The Tribuna was designed as a model of the four elements: marble floor for earth, shells for water, red walls for fire and the lantern for air.

In 1565 Vasari built an enclosed passage of about one kilometre that runs from the Palazzo Vecchio through the Uffizi and over the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.

So that no smell would reach the duke's private passage, the butchers on the Ponte Vecchio were moved out, and goldsmiths had taken over their shops by 1593.

Instead of cutting through the medieval Mannelli Tower on the far bank, the Vasari Corridor swings around it on projecting brackets.

In the mid-17th century Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici began collecting artists' self-portraits, a collection that came to line the Vasari Corridor.

On 27 May 1993 a Mafia car bomb in Via dei Georgofili killed five people, destroyed five works of art and damaged around 30 more.

The Nuovi Uffizi expansion, finished in 2006, more than doubled exhibition space, from about 6,000 to almost 13,000 square metres.

With more than two million visitors in 2016, the Uffizi was the most visited art gallery in Italy.

Why it is worth it

The Uffizi began as offices. In 1560 Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect, to build a single home for the magistracies, guilds and agencies of Florence, hence the name, "the offices". Vasari designed two long matching wings enclosing a narrow courtyard that runs from the Piazza della Signoria down to the Arno, where it ends in an open screen of columns framing the river. With its unbroken cornices and repeated bays it is often described as the first regularised street space in Europe. Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti completed the building in 1581.

The top floor became a gallery for the Medici collections of ancient sculpture and paintings. In 1584 Buontalenti finished the Tribuna, an octagonal room built to show masterpieces and jewels together, which became one of the sights of the Grand Tour. When the Medici line died out, the last heiress, Anna Maria Luisa, left the family's collections to the Tuscan state on condition that nothing be removed from Florence. The gallery had shown its treasures to visitors on request since the sixteenth century and opened to the public in 1769, making it one of the first modern museums.

The collection is above all one of Italian Renaissance painting, and it lets you walk through the whole story: the great Madonna altarpieces of Cimabue, Duccio and Giotto, Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano, Piero della Francesca's double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, and then the Botticelli rooms with the Primavera and the Birth of Venus. Leonardo's Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo, Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch, Titian's Venus of Urbino, Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck, Caravaggio's Medusa and Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes follow, alongside ancient marbles such as the Venus de' Medici.

Getting there

The gallery stands in the historic centre of Florence, beside the Piazza della Signoria. The nearest airport is Florence Peretola (FLR), about 6 km away.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

From the encyclopaedia

The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world. It holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

On these lists

From the encyclopaedia