Galleria degli Uffizi

This is one of the best collection of the world. The Gallery is located in the Palazzo degli Uffizi which is considered the best masterpiece of florentine architecture in XVI century, build between 1560 and 1580 with features of tradition as the alternation of plaster and pietra serena.

In the half of XVI century the power of Florence was enormous and there was no structure able to accommodate so many offices or better “uffizi”. Cosimo I de’ Medici charged Giorgio Vasari to build Uffizi Gallery, but this was a difficult plan: Arno, the river, is near the gallery and the ground was not so good for a structure as uffizi, but Vasari was able to create a new solid structure. After Cosimo I and Vasari, Francesco I, intellectual prince, lover of art and alchemy and Bernardo Buontalenti, genial artist, realized the Tribuna and Teatro Mediceo and on the third floor accomodated a collection af statues and paintings.

The structure of Uffizi was: on the first floor there were offices and magistracy, in others floor a series of laboratory. Ater the death of Francesco I the Gallery included paintings, sculptures and objects of different interest.

The original core of the gallery expanded and it should be shown on reservation. The Uffizi began to acquire its modern-day constitution as a collection of paintings, the first step to the modern concept of Museum.

In the half of 1700 the Gallery became property of the city. The house of Lorraine began to reorganize the immense body of material, concentrating on the painting, sculputere and masterpieces from convents. In 1989 Uffizi rearranged all the rooms on first floor and the plan is to triplicate the extension of the museum.