Bargello Museum Guided Visit - monday

Our Guide will introduce you to one of the most prestigious sculpture museums in the world with masterpieces by the greatest Renaissance artists, such as: the David and the St. George by Donatello, the Bacchus and the Pitti Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, the Mercury by Giambologna, as well as the magnificent glazed terra-cotta reliefs by Luca, Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia.

The quality of the sculpture in this museum is comparable to that of the Uffizi Gallery paintings.

The splendid fortified Bargello palace was the first public Florentine edifice (1255), built to house the Council Chamber of the parliament of the Republic of Florence.

One walks into a beautiful austere courtyard, and looks up at the crests of the Podestà (Lords of Justice), who lived in the palace throughout the Republican period, and the battlements of the belfry towering above us.

The present name of the building is derived from the Bargello: the commander of the guards, whose headquarters was in the palace in the 16th century.

Hooks embedded high up, above the horse hooks, in the pillars around the courtyard, were used to hang prisoners by their ankles and wrists, when they were subjected to the atrocious penalty of the strappo.