Bargello National Museum: everything you need to know

The Bargello National Museum in Florence hides so many treasures and is one of the must-see places if you go to the Florentine capital. Here is everything you absolutely must know about this wonderful Florentine museum.

Bargello National Museum: everything you need to know

I have beenstudying Art History for years, and I have always thought that there are so many places I would love to visit, to see the canvases and sculptures of my favorite artists, that a lifetime would not be enough! But, as is often the case, it is the closest and most familiar places that we end up neglecting. So one day I made up my mind and got on the train. Florence is in Bella Italia, in the heart of cozy Tuscany, and its art treasures were ready to offer themselves to me for the modest payment of a train ticket and then museum admission!

Wandering through the streets of Florence

A stay in Florence might seem like a no-brainer in an age when with very little money you can take a flight to the most exotic locations. But really few other places in the world have the charm of this ancient city, which is located in one of the most fascinating regions of our peninsula.

Whether you decide to stay in one of the charming downtown Bed & Breakfasts or take advantage of luxury treatment in fully equipped facilities in the urban center or in the beautiful surrounding countryside, there is no way to be disappointed.

Tuscan hospitality is truly unique, and the food and wine are always the perfect accompaniment to any day: whether you stop at a modest trattoria or a luxurious restaurant, the quality of what is served on the table is never poor. And if you stay in Florence for a few days, you will be overwhelmed by the amount of events organized, in every field of beauty and life, from fashion to culture, from art to crafts.

In short, you won't get bored in Florence, even less so if you plan to do a full immersion in one of its many extraordinary museums. Just one, it goes without saying: when I enter a museum, I linger so long in every room, in front of every work, that often a full day is not even close to enough! Let alone in the museums of Florence, where there is such an abundance of the most beautiful pieces of artistic production of all times that really the opening and closing hours of the facilities, although absolutely adequate to the needs of tourists, as they are extended over the course of the days and periods of the year, are nevertheless always insufficient.

Museums in Florence: the Uffizi, but not only.

La Uffizi Gallery can be considered the city's best-known and most important museum, and every tourist staying in Florence wants to savor its lifestyle to the fullest and doesn't mind standing in long lines just to stroll through its avid halls. But my goal was not that, so much as another structure, second in no way to the Uffizi, a precious treasure chest of as many wonderful works.

The Bargello, the museum in the People's Palace

The Bargello National Museum preserves mostly masterpieces in the field of sculpture, and especially Renaissance sculpture. It is part of the Polo Museale Fiorentino and is located on Via del Proconsolo, in a thirteenth-century palace that alone would be worth the entrance fee, which is really derisory compared to what you get in return. Its name comes from the fact that the structure in which it is now housed was once the palace of the Capitano del Popolo, and the Palazzo del Bargello was precisely the Palazzo del Popolo.

The History of the Bargello National Museum

Before visiting any museum, I like to savor its history: on the other hand, walking around Florence one has no difficulty finding written guides, or pamphlets, and the Internet is another inexhaustible source of information. The Bargello National Museum was established in the late nineteenth century, after also having been a prison in the past.

The bronze and marble sculptures housed there today, as well as many objects of applied arts, were brought right from the Uffizi Museum. Unfortunately, like many other Florentine structures, it suffered major damage following theFlorence flood of 1966, but today it has returned to its former glory, even more so because of the wonders contained within.

I admit that I have a soft spot for allRenaissance art, and sculpture has a special fascination because, even if the modern visitor is not allowed to touch, the physicality of a statue provokes the thrill of an intimate closeness with the hand that made it, even if that hand has not been there for many centuries.

Works of art by great masters in the collection

It is known that Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was one of the most multifaceted artists, along with Leonardo da Vinci, of the Florentine and later Roman Renaissance. Here at the Bargello I stood in ecstatic contemplation, close to falling victim to Stendhal Syndrome, of his magnificent Pitti Tondo. It is a bas-relief as simple as it is incisive, in which the Virgin Mary and her son, the Child Jesus, emerge as if to come towards the visitor.

Inside the Hall of 16th-century Sculpture, along with the works of Michelangelo, not to be missed are those of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) whose sketches for the statue of Perseus that stands under the Loggia in Piazza della Signoria.

Another room not to be missed is the Hall of Donatello and 15th-century Sculpture, home to many works by Donatello (1386-1466), including the world-famous bronze "David," which one would never tire of admiring again, circling all around it to admire every single detail of his perfect figure.

Curiosities about the Bargello

A curiosity, really interesting for all enthusiasts, is always found in Donatello's Hall, namely the panels of the scene of the "Sacrifice of Isaac" that Lorenzo Ghislieri and Filippo Brunelleschi made to participate in the competition for the door of the Baptistery of San Giovanni.

Also not to be missed is the Hall of Andrea della Robbia (1435-1528), the great ceramist whose "Portrait of a Maiden," a polychrome glazed terracotta of great refinement, depicting a lady from another era, can be admired here.

But a really in-depth visit to the Bargello Museum will allow you to discover many other wonders, as if indeed the whole world were enclosed in a single, magical place, set in the heart of Tuscany.

Bargello National Museum - Via del Proconsolo, 4 - 50122 Florence - Tel. 055 23.88.606

📍TO ELABORATE:

👉 S uvereto Artistic Doll Museum: treasure chest of wonders waiting to be discovered

👉 F lorence Academy Gallery, especially "the David," but not only

👉 National Museum of San Marco in Florence

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