San Lorenzo Church
Piazza San Lorenzo
Open from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00p.m. every working day
Sundays and holidays open for religious celebrations only
Ticket Euros 2,50

The Medici family has enriched this beautiful, monumental church since 1300 because it was the nearest church to the family palace, located just at the west corner of the same square.
Brunelleschi (the architect of the Dome) renovated and enlarged the church in the XV century, but left and unfinished façade. We already saw the model for a project of this façade by Michelangelo in the museum of Casa Buonarroti. Unfortunately that project was never realized and while the other main churches of the city had their façades at latest in the XIX century (like the Duomo or the Santa Croce church), the San Lorenzo Church always remained as we can see it now.

Before entering the church, let’s take the door on the left to reach the cloister and the Medicean-Laurentian Library. This library was created to contain the rare book collection of Lorenzo the Magnificent and it was totally designed by Michelangelo. There is a large and charming reading hall, very bright and with a beautiful use of perspective on the walls, thanks to the many frames. But the most famous sight here is in the room before, the staircase, where there is the real link between the Renaissance and the Baroque styles, a couple of decades before the baroque was going to invade all Europe. As a matter of fact the side stairs have straight lines typical of Renaissance, but the central steps have an elliptical shape, like an imaginary rock flow. This kind of curve is an innovation by Michelangelo and we will see it again on the Medici’s tombs and on the Santa Trinita Bridge spans.
The decoration of the walls is very original as well: grey stone twin-columns, frames and other decorations standing out against the white plaster are an evident homage to Brunelleschi’s colours of Sacrestia Nuova, which we are going to visit very soon.

Let us now enter inside the church: the Michelangelo’s works cannot be reached from here, but a visit to the main building is necessary to understand the whole complex. Among the many original masterworks displayed here (like the Donatello’s Pulpits or the big Bronzino’s fresco in the Mannerist style, inspired to Michelangelo’s frescoes), we will especially focus on the Sacrestia Vecchia by Brunelleschi, Donatello and Luca Della Robbia (built around 1420), called the old sacristy, versus the new sacristy made by Michelangelo.
This little place is considered as the peak architectural masterwork of the early Renaissance, when the 3 most talented artists of the time cooperated to find out the highest harmony in proportions, with a very simple but highly sophisticated decoration. Michelangelo will use this model for the New Sacristy (built in a symmetrical position to this one), but he will rearrange this scheme with his creativity, updating it to the magnificence and the grandeur of the late Renaissance.
Just before exiting, give a look at the simple plaque on the floor in front of the altar: the patriarch of the Medici family, the important statesman Cosimo il Vecchio, is buried here. How different this sobriety is, compared to the pomp we are going to see at the tombs of the Medici grand dukes.
When we are ready to exit let’s head to the backside of the church to the entrance of the Cappelle Medicee, the Medici Chapels.