MEDICI CHAPELS, The Chapel Of Princes

The vast complex of the Basilica of San Lorenzo offers such a large variety of itineraries that you almost forget that you're still in the same monument! Once you leave the basilica you can also walk around the open market, which with its leather stalls adds a touch of cheerful confusion. Generation after generation in San Lorenzo, the Medici reflected the changes of artistic taste over the centuries: from the humanism of Brunelleschi, to the full Renaissance with the marvelous Old Sacristy designed by Michelangelo, to the Baroque magnificence represented by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, or Workshop of semi-precious stones.

The entrance to the Medici Chapels is completely independent and is located at the back of the church, in Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, which is always crowded and dominated by the Baroque dome of the Cappella dei Principi, or Chapel of Princes. It almost seems like the entrance to a museum, but you shouldn't forget that you're entering the great burial ground of the family that marked the city's history from the 1400s to the 1700s!

Once past the entrance, you'll find yourself in a large, dimly lit basement supported by robust pillars: this is the crypt of the Chapel of Princes. The tombstones you see in the lateral niches and in the passages belong exclusively to members of the Medici family.

In a dramatic turn, you suddenly pass from the darkness of the crypt into the impressive Baroque scenery of the chapel.

The Grand Duke Ferdinando chose this large octagonal hall as the home of the family mausoleum at the end of the 16th century: to decorate the hall he founded the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, or Workshop of semi-precious stones, which specialized in colored marble and semiprecious stones, purchased from all over the world, for the coatings of architecture and furnishings.

If you look at the base you'll see the coats of arms of the Tuscan cities, while the sides are lined with the granite and porphyry tombs of the Grand Dukes.

FUN FACT: the Medici thought big: do you know what they wanted to put in the center of the atrium? Nothing less than the Holy Sepulcher! They went on several trips to Jerusalem to buy it, and even planned to steal it. But it was all in vain, and they were never successful.