Cappelle Medicee, Florence

The Medici Chapels are a funerary museum within the San Lorenzo complex, created for the Medici dynasty. The visit brings together two distinct chapels: the New Sacristy by Michelangelo and the grander Chapel of the Princes, developed with several architects. The New Sacristy began as a burial chapel commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici and Pope Leo X.

Its tombs honour Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, with reclining figures representing stages of the day and a Madonna holding Christ. Michelangelo’s departure for Rome left the project unfinished, and later artists completed the setting. In the Chapel of the Princes, look at the walls: fitted pieces of marble and semi-precious stone form an immense surface of pattern and heraldry.

Six monumental sarcophagi are empty; the Medici remains lie in the crypt beneath. The octagonal chamber rises beneath a dome reaching 59 metres, while compartments around the lower wall carry the arms of Tuscan cities once controlled by the family. What you see here is a family mausoleum transformed into a carefully staged display of power, sculpture, and costly stone.