The Galleria dell'Accademia used to be two convents, which were unconsecrated and united together in the second half of the 18th century at the behest of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, and became the home of the Academy of Fine Arts. To help teach young artists, the Academy immediately began collecting antique paintings and formed an important collection of plaster casts and drawings, which are now an integral part of the museum's exposition. Your visit begins in the so-called Sala del Colosso, where you can find one of the most famous plaster casts of the Accademia's collections: it is The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna, a sculpture that still stands today in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria. The most acclaimed guest of the Accademia, David, only came to the gallery at the end of the eighteenth century, and was placed in the center of the Tribune that was specially designed for him by the same architect who designed the Cathedral's façade.
