Florence was founded in the 1st century BCE as a Roman military colony. During its long history it has served many other roles, including a brief stint as the national capital of Italy in the 1860s. But the city remains best known as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and most of these nine buildings reflect that era’s stunning architectural achievements.

　　Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, edited by Mark Irving (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses.

　　San Miniato al Monte was founded in 1018, to serve a Benedictine abbey sponsored by Countess Matilda of Canossa, a great advocate of papal power during the late 11th century. It is dedicated to the first martyr of Christian Florence, who was beheaded and then allegedly staggered, head under his arm, to his final resting place on the hillside location of the church.

　　It is a fine example of Tuscan Romanesque architecture that was completed in 1059, and both its interior and exterior were to exert a great influence on the Renaissance architects of the 15th century. The facade is rationally ordered with a design using green serpentine stone, which is set off to great effect by the pristine white of the Carrara marble. The design combines a five-bay arcade on the ground floor, surmounted by an element resembling a Classical temple front. At the top of the elegant aedicular window (framed to resemble a little building) is a 13th-century mosaic showing Christ enthroned with the titular saint of the church. Crowning the facade, a bronze eagle symbolizes the wool merchants’ guild that was the church’s chief benefactor. The interior is ordered around a nave with two side aisles, separated by arcades that alternate columns with compound piers. The apse, rising high above the crypt and raised high altar, shimmers with 13th-century mosaics. Framed by the stairs up to the high altar, Michelozzo’s Cappella del Crocifisso (1448) is an elegant Renaissance addition. (Fabrizio Nevola)

　　Hospital of the InnocentsSome consider the Hospital of the Innocents, completed in 1429, to be the building that first defined a new style of architecture during what is now known as the Renaissance—a style that was based upon a rejection of Gothic forms and a return to the language of the Classical Roman past. It is a foundling hospital established and funded by a wealthy merchants’ guild to provide for the city’s orphans. Filippo Brunelleschi used freestanding columns supporting round-arched arcades. By boldly contrasting the gray stone of the pietra serena architectural elements against the white stucco of the smooth surfaces, the building’s design was made easily comparable to Roman models.

　　In an original reworking of Classical Roman elements, Brunelleschi used plain, not fluted, columns without a balustrade above them. Above each column is a ceramic tondo depicting a baby in swaddling clothes lying on a blue wheel. The blue wheel referred to a rotating horizontal wheel on which mothers could leave their babies at the hospital anonymously. The hospital accepted unwanted children until 1875.

　　The hospital’s striking design is also innovative for its clear and eloquent addressing of the adjacent public space. The open arcade expands into the public space. Raised on a plinth of steps, the loggia offers an open and protective facade, in a symbolic language expressive of the building’s function. (Fabrizio Nevola)

　　The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, or Duomo, forms part of an architectural complex that includes the baptistery—Battistero di San Giovanni—and Giotto’s bell tower. All three buildings are linked visually by the distinctive vertical and horizontal bands of colored marble decorating their external walls.

　　By the end of the 13th century, the Cathedral of Santa Reparata was crumbling, so Florence decided to build a church over it that would surpass those of Pisa and Siena. Work began on the floorplan by Arnolfo di Cambio—a nave and two aisles divided by Gothic arches, culminating in an octagonal dome at the rear of the building. Giotto worked on the campanile before his death, and Andrea Pisano continued the construction until he died of the plague. A series of architects quickly succeeded one another to complete the bell tower, expand the apse and side chapels, and finish the naves. Six lateral stained-glass windows were also added, with only the four closest to the transept allowing in light. There is a marked contrast between the elaborately decorated exterior and its spartan interior—a reversal of what was typical for cathedrals of the period.

　　In response to the challenge of erecting a cupola over the chancel, Filippo Brunelleschi presented plans for a wooden and brick model inspired by the Pantheon’s double-walled circular dome. His revolutionary engineering design solution—an octagonal double-walled cupola with horizontal reinforcements resting on a drum instead of the roof—bypassed any need for scaffolding and produced history’s first octagonal dome. When the Duomo was finally completed, in 1436, it was the largest Christian church in the world. (Anna Amari-Parker)

　　The first major residential palace of the Renaissance in Italy was built for Cosimo de’ Medici, pater patriae of the Florentine state during the second quarter of the 15th century. It was completed in 1450. Cosimo turned to the local sculptor-architect Michelozzo whom he had already employed for the construction of the stripped-down monastic complex of San Marco, in the north of Florence. Michelozzo, a master at combining innovative features with local building traditions, fashioned an entirely new residential type for his Medici patron.

　　Centered on a grand, columned courtyard, the tripartite facade with its rusticated lower level, large round-arched windows on the second story, and massive cornice set the template for Florentine palazzi for years to come. Reminiscent of a Roman villa, the proud exterior gave way to an softer interior, the courtyard opening onto an intimate enclosed garden.

　　Beyond the courtyard, on the first floor—the so-called piano nobile—an impressive sequencing of rooms led to the domestic quarters. At the heart of the home was the private chapel, the Capella dei Magi, designed by Michelozzo and decorated by the painter Benozzo Gozzoli with frescoes showing the journey of the Magi. The immense luxury of this room was rivaled only by Cosimo’s private study, which was lined with precious objects whose value far outstripped the construction cost of the entire palace.

　　In 1659, Gabbriello Riccardi bought the palazzo and adjacent buildings. He set about merging the buildings, but he maintained the Renaissance exterior as far as possible while giving it a Baroque interior. (Fabrizio Nevola)

　　The fortified medieval city hall of Florence is attributed to the sculptor and architect Arnolfo di Cambio. Completed in 1540, it was originally named Palazzo dei Priori after the priors who governed the city. Reflecting the internal conflict and factionalism that characterized the era, the Palazzo Vecchio was built on land confiscated from the opposition Uberti family, thus creating an architectural expression of the force of the commune to overpower internal rivalries.

　　Fierce rusticated stonework in local pietra forte (strong stone) gives the building a militaristic feel that is reinforced by the high windows, prominent heraldry, and projecting balcony topped with crenelations. The bell tower, topped by a belfry resembling the palace’s forms in miniature, creates a pivot around which the public space and government palace interact. Running along the front of the building is a high stone podium from which the government announced decisions to the city community. Behind the defensive exterior is a sophisticated Renaissance palace, focused around an arcaded courtyard resembling that of the Medici Palace. This is the result of reordering of the building around 1450, promoted by the Medici family, who increasingly came to control Florentine affairs and were able to ensure that their favored architect, Michelozzo, supervised the improvements. Beyond the courtyard a mazelike sequence of rooms originally housed diverse political offices, but was transformed in the mid-1500s to serve as a palace for the Medici family, who had become rulers of the city. The most impressive architectural space of the interior is the Sala dei Cinquecento (Room of the 500), so called for the number of citizens it could accommodate for government assemblies held during the last gasps of the Florentine Republic prior to the rule of the Medici family. (Fabrizio Nevola)

　　Luca Pitti, Florentine merchant, politician, friend, and sometime rival of Cosimo de’ Medici the Elder, commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to design a residence that would surpass Palazzo Vecchio in size and content. The original design was a central block, equal in both height and depth, over three floors with three entrances at ground level, and seven windows on each side of the two upper floors. The project lay unfinished until the property was sold to Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo de’ Medici, in 1549. Numerous additions followed. The heavily rusticated stonework facade, later incorporated into the vast extensions made at either side of the palace, was originally characterized by three rows of seven-arched bays reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct.

　　Today, the result is a massive building complex: 23 bays long on the first floor, and 13 on the top floor. Sixteenth-century floorplans indicate there were major divisions between the ceremonial and residential functions of the palace. Bartolomeo Ammannati’s clustered family apartments may be seen as a characteristic feature of Medicean residences, and records of official visits suggest the vastness of the residence was due to diplomatic protocol and the constant entertaining of visitors at the Medicean court. The setting of Palazzo Pitti extends to the Boboli Gardens, one of the earliest examples of Italian gardens with fountains and grottoes, created by the Medicis in 1550.

　　The architectural merit of Palazzo Pitti is in its outer severity. Stuffed with treasure, it houses the Royal Apartments of the Medicis, the Palatine Gallery, paintings, sculptures, porcelain, silverware, and a costume gallery. The official residence of one ruling family, it has also played host to other dynasties such as the Bourbons, Bonapartes, and Savoys. (Anna Amari-Parker)

　　Florence BaptisteryThe imposing Baptistery of San Giovanni, which is situated across from the Duomo and was completed in 1571, has 6th-century foundations that reach back to a time of cultural rebirth in Florence following centuries of so-called barbarian invasions. The building’s octagonal geometry—which includes the lantern-topped pyramidal-shaped roof—is defined by classical proportions and ancient heraldic symbols, such as the Florentine lion. Complex white and dark-green marble patterning distinguishes all eight sides, with each face characterized by horizontal bands, rectangles, blind arches, and deep-set windows that allow light into the interior. The upper fascia contains windows set within a series of three-panel designs.

　　The figurative art of the celebrated doors marks the dawn of the Renaissance. Andrea Pisano cast the south entrance in gilded bronze with figures in relief taken from the life of John the Baptist. Lorenzo Ghiberti crafted those of the north entrance to show scenes from the New Testament. Using a workmanship similar to Pisano’s, but showing greater perspective, depth, and naturalism, he went on to create ten masterpiece panels for the east entrance. Michelangelo dubbed these “the Gates of Paradise” for their astonishing beauty.

　　The interior is fairly somber, but the walls are faced with colored marbles and gilded capitals. Granite columns separate wall niches, and arches resting on pilasters open on the ambulatory or gallery. The architrave, semicircular apse, and domed ceiling are encrusted with gold Byzantine mosaics. Red, green, black, and white Moorish-style inlays adorn the floor.

　　San Giovanni’s breathtaking compositional equilibrium fuses architectural perfection, exquisite craftsmanship, and precious materials to convey the salvation of the spirit inherent in the Christian baptismal rite. Traditionally, all infants born in Florence of Roman Catholic parents are baptized here. (Anna Amari-Parker)

　　Laurentian LibraryThe Laurentian Library was commissioned by Pope Clement VII, a son of Giuliano de’ Medici, to house the valuable manuscripts and early printed books that his family had been collecting for about a century. Michelangelo was awarded the project, and, although he left the site in 1534 to work mostly in Rome, his precise drawings and instructions enabled Tribolo, Giorgio Vasari, and Bartolommeo Ammannati to complete it in his absence.

　　Site constraints were a major factor in the design, because the library is positioned above the preexisting second floor of the cloister adjoining the Basilica of San Lorenzo and squeezed on one side by the transept and Old Sacristy of the church, built the previous century by Brunelleschi. Michelangelo overcame these problems with virtuoso prowess, creating first of all a vestibule—the so-called ricetto—that creates the transition from the old structure to the new. Top-lit by clerestory windows, the massive, almost oppressive use of pietra serena paired columns and blind windows are set into the wall, an expedient that allowed space to be saved in this enclosed area.

　　Beyond the ricetto, Michelangelo created an open-plan reading room, a rectangular space nearly 164 feet (50 m) long, amply lit by windows on both sides, with a flat, wooden, coffered ceiling, the elaborate design of which is mirrored in the floor paving. The room is articulated by pilasters that clearly evoke 15th-century precedents in the rest of the religious complex, thus melding the new library with its context. Michelangelo also provided drawings for the unusual benches that serve as desks behind, as well as a clay model for the ricetto stairs. The library was completed in 1571. (Fabrizio Nevola)

　　The massive Uffizi project of Giorgio Vasari is an early example of the architecture of absolute monarchy, built for the newly established Florentine Duchy of Cosimo de’ Medici. Cosimo ordered the relocation of city-guild and other administrative offices to a location immediately adjacent to his residential palace—the former city hall, the Palazzo Vecchio. United in one location, these uffizi, or offices, were ordered along the course of a newly cut straight street that linked the Piazza della Signoria to the Arno river, a distance of more than 492 feet (150 m).

　　Each office had an opening onto the grand Doric portico, and upper rooms on a mezzanine level, which was lit by high windows cut into the coffering of the barrel vaults. The sense of order created by the serried ranks of Doric colonnades that enclose the new piazza suggest authoritarian architecture.

　　The Uffizi were not simply an administrative hub, however. The two upper levels of Vasari’s design were reserved for the Duke’s court and residence and were soon filled with the works of art that form the core of the present-day museum collection. Lighting of these spaces was one of Vasari’s major concerns, and he ordered the facade into units of three bays punctured by large aedicular windows. At the Arno end of the U-shaped structure, a vast triumphal arch-like Serliana window affords vistas back to the Palazzo Vecchio, and south to the Arno and the Boboli gardens beyond. (Fabrizio Nevola)