Uffizi Gallery, National art museum in Florence, Italy
The Uffizi Gallery is a national art museum in Florence, Italy, extending across two floors of a Renaissance palace and displaying paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages through the Modern period. The galleries run along long corridors with windows overlooking the Arno, while the main rooms branch off to the sides and each present different periods and artists.
Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build the palace as offices for the grand-ducal administration. His son Francesco I turned the upper gallery into a museum in 1581. The gallery opened to the public in 1765. In 1737 the Medici line died out, and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici's 1743 will bound the collections to Florence, keeping them in the city.
The collection shows works by Italian masters like Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo, as well as German, Dutch, and Flemish paintings. The rooms are organized by artistic schools and periods, so visitors can follow the development of Italian painting from one room to the next.
The museum opens Wednesday through Sunday from 8:15 AM to 6:30 PM, with extended hours until 10:00 PM on Tuesdays through December 2024. Visitors should wear comfortable shoes as the galleries are long, and arrive early in the morning or on less busy weekdays to avoid queues.
The Vasari Corridor connects the museum to Palazzo Pitti across the Arno River, passing above the Ponte Vecchio bridge. This passageway was originally built for the Medici so they could move between their palaces without using public streets.
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