Entering the Museum of San Marco is like stepping back in time to the very heart of 15th century Renaissance Florence.
The museum is inside a former convent, which housed a community of Dominican friars, and the moment you enter the old cloister, you are surrounded by beauty and peace, feeling you have left the busy city far behind you.
Construction of the convent, an extraordinary example of Renaissance architecture, was financed by Florentine banker Cosimo de’ Medici, known as Cosimo the Elder. An important religious centre in Florence but also a place which talks about the culture, the art, the politics and the history of the city at the time when this famous family started gaining power.
While construction took place, one of the most important painters of the period, and a Dominican friar himself, Fra Angelico, took care of the decoration. The simplicity, the soft colours and the wonderful light in his frescoes, especially the ones decorating the friars’ cells on the first floor, are still enchanting anyone entering this place. This is where you will find his most famous Annunciation, as well as the most important collection in the world of his panel paintings.
It is also possible to visit the beautiful library, created on specific request of Cosimo the Elder for his important collection of manuscripts. This is considered to be the first library of modern times, open not only to the friars, but also to laymen from outside the convent, who wanted to study especially the old classic texts collected by Cosimo. Today the library allows visitors to admire wonderful antique illuminated choir books, some decorated by Fra Angelico as well.
San Marco was also the place where the famous apocalyptic preacher, Girolamo Savonarola, lived. He was the prior of the convent for a few years, and you will be able to pay a visit to his private cell, and get to know the story about his rise, and tragic fall,in a very turbulent time of the city’s history.