Private Guided Tour of the Church of San Lorenzo

The Medici: History of a family, history of exceptional patronage

Your guide proposes a route that aims to be an exciting journey to visit the Basilica of San Lorenzo, and deepen the relationship of the Medici family with art and artists. A surprising and unexpected journey between the great artists of the Florentine Renaissance and the great patrons of the Medici. Everyone will be enraptured by the grandeur and magnificence of the Florence Cathedral.

But, close to Santa Maria Del Fiore, there is another beautiful church in Florence: the church of San Lorenzo, an almost obligatory stop on your tour. From the outside, San Lorenzo looks simple and bare, with a rough stone facade. However, upon entering, we realize the richness of this place: the architecture is elegant and harmonious, and the decoration is stunning. In this church, the great artists of the Florentine Renaissance left their mark: Brunelleschi and Michelangelo, Donatello and Verrocchio (Leonardo da Vinci’s master), Filippo Lippi (Botticelli’s master), Rosso Fiorentino and many others…

Guided tour of the Church of San Lorenzo and the square

The guided tour begins in front of the Church of San Lorenzo, an important church for the History of the city, since San Lorenzo was, until the eighth century, the first cathedral of Florence. The current building, however, is the result of works carried out in the fifteenth century, in large part financed by the Medici family, who commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to supervise the works for the construction of an entirely new basilica, in Renaissance style, so that it would become the their private church. Many baptisms, weddings and funerals of family members took place here. The facade of the church was never completed, despite numerous competitions. Michelangelo was also called, who provided an ambitious project, only partially realized inside, with the creation of a gallery for the exhibition of the relics that belonged to the Medici family; the outside of the church remained without a facade, as we see it today. The interior of San Lorenzo is composed of several chapels:

THE CHAPELS OF SAN LORENZO WITH YOUR ENGLISH-SPEAKING GUIDE: The tombs of the Medici.

During the guided tour, I suggest visiting at least three chapels of the church, iconic of the personality of the Medici family members. The guided tour will allow us to correctly channel the genealogy of the dynasty and learn about secrets and anecdotes related to the different members. The Old Sacristy is the first part of San Lorenzo that Brunelleschi rebuilt: it is a quadrangular chapel with clean lines, dominated by a splendid dome. Its elegant decorative elements are the work of Donatello. The chapel is the result of an arduous collaboration between Brunelleschi and Donatello. Inside the chapel, we find the tomb of Giovanni de Bicci, head of the Medici family, and the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de Medici, designed by Andrea del Verrocchio (master of Leonardo da Vinci). Michelangelo built the New Sacristy on commission from the Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII, between 1520 and 1534. The architect took the plan of Brunelleschi’s earlier sacristy and transformed it into a structure full of movement and tension. The originality of the lines has moved away from the serenity of the classical forms of the early Renaissance. In the not-very-large hall are the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his son Giuliano Duke of Nemours, his nephew Laurent Duke of Urbino, and his brother, murdered in the cathedral in 1478. The Medici Dukes are depicted by Michelangelo as Roman warriors, the allegories of Day and Night, Twilight and Dawn, extended on the volutes of the sarcophagi, recognized as the most intelligent expression of Michelangelo’s sculpture. The Chapel of the Princes, a sumptuous architectural work, begun at the beginning of the 16th century and continued in the following century, is the best testimony of the quest for the greatness of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de Medici, to give himself and his descendants a worthy place of burial. Its monumental and elaborate side (undoubtedly the best example in Florence of the creative imagination of Baroque art) is underlined by a coating of polychrome marble and semi-precious stones (the “Florentine salesman” technique). The history of the stonemason of Florence is closely linked to that of the Medici family. Collectors of semi-precious stone objects since the 15th century, the Medici in the following century continued to cultivate their passion for this form of art until a factory dedicated to it was established in 1588. It was Ferdinando I de Medici who gave a stable order to the various workshops in the service of the Grand Dukes, unifying them under the name of Galleria delle Opere, later known as Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

The Gallery’s first artistic and financial commitment has aimed at a project that was at least ambitious: the covering in polychrome stones of the majestic family mausoleum at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, which was to house the tombs of the Medici dynasty and whose construction lasted more than two hundred and fifty years. It is in the crypt, on the chapel’s floor, where we can see the tombstones of several princes of the Medici family. The crypt extends under the basilica, where the tombs of Cosimo the Elder and Donatello are located. Next to the basilica, as a reminder that the building originally was a convent, an elegant cloister with two floors of arches gives access to the Laurentian Library, created by Michelangelo to preserve Laurent’s prestigious collection of books. Commissioned by Pope Clement VII de’ Medici to house the family’s precious collection of manuscripts, the Laurentian Library was designed by Michelangelo, who personally directed its work between 1523 and 1534, the year he moved to Rome. The library was completed in 1571 by Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati, commissioned by Cosimo I de Medici to continue the work according to Michelangelo’s plans, and opened to the public in the same year. The entrance area, called the vestibule, is dominated by the large stone staircase built by Ammannati in 1559 after a model by Michelangelo, who, however, had designed it in walnut. At the top of the grand staircase, a large portal leads to the vast reading room, one of the few 16th-century rooms in the world that has remained virtually intact: everything here is original, with a linden ceiling carved by Giovan Battista del Tasso according to Michelangelo’s designs, with splendid stained glass windows with the Medici coat of arms designed by Giorgio Vasari, and ending with the beautiful red and white terracotta floor designed by Niccolò Tribolo, a pupil of Buonarroti. These wooden benches, called plutei, which extend in two parallel rows on either side of the hall, were made to Michelangelo’s design. They had the dual function of lectern and guard: the codices were stored horizontally on the lower shelves and were freely consultable and attached to the desk by chains. The cultured humanist climate at the court of Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent is reflected in the original core of manuscripts, still preserved in the library today. Valuable manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers testify to the interest in classical authors that arose at the Medici court through the influence of Neoplatonic philosophy.