This museum is, strangely enough, overlooked by the major part of the many visitors in Florence, but is a wonderful place to go, especially if you are fond of sculptures.
The National Museum of the Bargello, which is the complete name, is housed in a historical building from the middle of the 13th century. It was originally the seat of the chief magistrate of medieval Florence and, later on, it became the city’s most frightening prison. The museum opened in 1865 as Italy’s very first national museum.
This truly evocative building contains one of the most important collections of Renaissance sculpture with masterpieces by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini, Giambologna and many more. On top of this, here you will find curious objects in ivory, bronzes, medals, coins, enamels and antique jewellery, some dating back to the 7th century A.D.
In the chapel, where the prisoners would spend their very last night before their executions, among the 700 years old frescoes, it is as well possible to find what is considered to be the most true portrait of the author of The Devine Comedy, famous Florentine poet Dante Alighieri.