Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Before you stands the home of the most powerful family in Florence. Cosimo the Elder lived here, as did his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent and, for a few years, a teenager called Michelangelo, taken into Lorenzo's household.

1Power without show

Cosimo the Elder commissioned the palace from Michelozzo in 1444. Vasari tells us he had earlier turned down a design by Brunelleschi as too grand: in a republic jealous of its freedom, a banker could not look like a prince. That is why the facade is so severe. Notice how the stone changes: very rough at the bottom, cut into blocks in the middle and smooth at the top, as if the building grew lighter as it rose. This scheme became the model for the Florentine Renaissance palace.

2From the Medici to the Riccardi

When Cosimo I moved to Palazzo Vecchio, the family left the house, and in 1659 it was bought by the Riccardi marquesses, who extended it along Via Cavour. Hence the double name. Today it is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Florence and a museum.

Inside hides a gem: the Chapel of the Magi, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli around 1459, with a procession in which, it is believed, members of the Medici family are portrayed.

3What to look for

• The 'kneeling windows' on the corner, attributed to Michelangelo, which closed off the old open loggia.
• The great cornice crowning the building.
• The Medici coat of arms with its balls, on the corner.