Palazzo dei Visacci, Renaissance palazzo in Borgo degli Albizi, Florence, Italy

Palazzo dei Visacci stands at Borgo degli Albizi 18-20, formed in the first half of the 16th century by merging medieval Albizi houses. Its facade carries fifteen herms of illustrious Florentines, completed in 1604 to a programme by Baccio Valori il Giovane and attributed to Giovanni Battista Caccini; above the main entrance is a portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici.

The palace took its present form in the first half of the 16th century, merging medieval houses including Rinaldo degli Albizi's. After the Albizi exile it was confiscated and sold to the Valori; Baccio Valori's opposition to Cosimo I and his part in the Battle of Montemurlo nearly cost the family the palace again, but it had passed as dowry to a Valori married into the Alessandri. At the end of the century Baccio Valori il Giovane, senator under Ferdinando I, added two neighbouring houses, one the Pazzi house whose coat of arms remains on the facade, and had the front redesigned, probably by Giovanni Battista Caccini, with fifteen herms completed in 1604. In 1687 it passed to the Guicciardini, and in 1727, through Virginia Guicciardini's marriage to Giovan Gaetano Altoviti, to the Altoviti.

The stone busts on the facade honor influential Florentines like Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio. These portraits reflect a Renaissance custom of celebrating important figures through architectural sculpture.

The noble floor has housed the Florentine lodge of the Grande Oriente d'Italia since 1978, so the palace is a private seat rather than a museum. The facade on Borgo degli Albizi, at street numbers 18-20, can be seen freely from the public street; the Galleria and the decorated rooms are not open to casual visitors.

The five lowest herms carry Latin inscriptions with dates: Accursius (1227), Pietro Torrigiano de' Valori (1290), Marsilio Ficino (1480), Donato Acciaiuoli (1470) and Piero Vettori (1560). Baccio Valori's son Filippo wrote a booklet, Termini di mezzo rilievo e di intera dottrina fra gli archi di casa Valori, to explain the figures and their mottoes.