Florence Statues

The Original at the Accademia

Michelangelo carved the David between 1501 and 1504 from Carrara marble quarried at Fantiscritti, and the figure stands 5.17 metres tall. It was unveiled on 8 September 1504 in Piazza della Signoria, in front of the seat of government. In the anti-Medici riot of 1527 its left arm was broken in three pieces.

In 1873 it was moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia on Via Ricasoli, and by 1882 the architect Emilio De Fabris had finished the tribune it still stands in. In 1991 a man with a hammer damaged the second toe of the left foot. The gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday 08:15 to 18:50, last admission 18:10.

The David timed entry is €28 (about $33). The visit is planned on the Accademia page and the booking options on David tickets.

The Marble Copy on Piazza della Signoria

In 1910 a full-size marble copy was set up on the spot where the original had stood from 1504, so the square still shows the David in its first position, beside the palace door. The copy is worth a few minutes rather than a glance. It is outdoors, at the height and in the light the statue was carved for, and you can walk right up to it, which you cannot do with the original.

Across the doorway stands Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus, and the pairing is the point of the square, as the square's own page explains. It is free at any hour. What each statue there means, one by one, is told on the statues on the square, one by one, so this page does not repeat it.

The Bronze Copy and Donatello's Two Davids

In 1875 a bronze copy of the David was raised on Piazzale Michelangelo, the terrace above the Oltrarno laid out while Florence was capital of the Kingdom of Italy. It is the David seen against the skyline rather than against buildings, and the walk up and the view are on the Piazzale Michelangelo page. That makes three by Michelangelo.

The Bargello holds two more Davids, both by Donatello. His bronze David of the 1440s is the first free-standing male nude cast since antiquity, according to the museum page on this guide, and it is far smaller than photographs suggest. His marble David is in the same museum.

Both are on the Bargello reserved entry at €19 (about $22), and the rooms are described on the Bargello page. So the answer to how many David statues are in Florence is five: three by Michelangelo, two of them copies, and two by Donatello.

Read the table by building, since that is how you will visit. Casa Buonarroti on Via Ghibellina 70 is the one Michelangelo building where we sell nothing: check the entry on its own site, since no price is published on its home page. It closes on Tuesdays rather than Mondays, which makes it a Monday stop.

The bronze copy is free.

The Two Works That Show How He Worked

Two groups on the list repay a second look for what they show about the carving itself. The four Prisoners at the Accademia were carved between about 1520 and 1530 for the tomb of Pope Julius II, which was never built as planned. They were left half out of the block, and the chisel marks show the method: the front carved first, the figure working its way back into the stone.

The late Pietà in the Opera del Duomo Museum was begun about 1547 for his own tomb and worked on for some nine years. Then he attacked it with a hammer and abandoned it. A pupil partly repaired it, and Christ's left leg is missing.

The hooded Nicodemus holding the body is taken to be a self-portrait. Both stops are on our tickets: the Accademia timed entry and the Duomo pass, which includes the museum. The David, Cathedral and City Highlights tour covers both buildings with a guide.

Piazza Santissima Annunziata: Ferdinando I

Start in the square in front of the Santissima Annunziata, north of the cathedral. In the middle rides Grand Duke Ferdinando I, an equestrian bronze that Giambologna began and Pietro Tacca completed. It was cast in 1602 and inaugurated in 1608 for the wedding of Cosimo II and Maria Maddalena of Austria, so it is as much a piece of wedding pageantry as a portrait.

Tradition says the bronze came from Turkish cannon captured by the Knights of Santo Stefano. Wikipedia reports that as a tradition, not a documented fact, and so do we. The same wedding brought the Four Seasons to Ponte Santa Trinita, later on this walk.

From here it is about twelve minutes south, past the cathedral, to Orsanmichele.

Orsanmichele: Fourteen Guild Statues

Orsanmichele is a grain market turned church, and its outside walls carry fourteen niches, one for each guild, each with the guild's patron saint. The statues you see from the street are copies, and the originals are mostly in the museum upstairs. Walk all four sides and look for Donatello, Ghiberti and Verrocchio among the names.

The outside costs nothing, and the dates, the guilds and the museum rules are in the Orsanmichele section below. The church interior is covered under Orsanmichele inside. The Porcellino is about two minutes further south.

The Porcellino at the Mercato Nuovo

Under the loggia of the Mercato Nuovo stands the most rubbed bronze in Florence. Pietro Tacca cast the boar shortly before 1634, after a Hellenistic marble. The figure you see is itself a copy: this one was cast in 1998 by the Marinelli foundry and installed in 2008, and Tacca's own bronze is in the Museo Stefano Bardini.

The custom of rubbing the snout for luck is recorded since 1766, which is why the snout shines gold against the dark body. The second part of the ritual is to put a coin in the boar's mouth and let it drop through the grate below. The stalls around it sell souvenirs and leather.

Go before the stalls open if you want a clear photograph. Piazza della Signoria is about three minutes away.

Piazza della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi come next, with the David copy, Hercules and Cacus, Neptune, Cosimo I, the Perseus and the Sabines. Each has its entry on the statues on the square, one by one and on the Loggia dei Lanzi, so the walk only passes through. From the square, the Uffizi courtyard leads down to the river and Ponte Vecchio in about five minutes.

Ponte Vecchio: The Cellini Bust

Stop in the middle of Ponte Vecchio at the bronze bust above the fountain. It shows Benvenuto Cellini, the goldsmith and sculptor who made the Perseus you have just passed in the Loggia. In 1900, for the fourth centenary of his birth, the goldsmiths of the bridge commissioned it from Raffaello Romanelli.

Padlocks are banned here: about 5,500 were removed in 2005 and 2006, and fixing one now brings a fine. The bust is the reason the bridge belongs on a statue walk, since it ties the shops of the bridge to the most famous goldsmith of the city. The shops, the corridor above them and the best times to cross are on the Ponte Vecchio page.

Ponte Santa Trinita is the next bridge downstream, about four minutes west along the river.

Ponte Santa Trinita: The Four Seasons

At the four corners of Ponte Santa Trinita stand the Four Seasons, set up in 1608 for the wedding of Cosimo II: Spring by Pietro Francavilla, Summer and Autumn by Giovanni Caccini and Winter by Taddeo Landini. The bridge was blown up on the night of 3 to 4 August 1944, and the statues went into the river with it. They were recovered and the bridge rebuilt, but Spring's head stayed missing until October 1961, when it was found in the Arno and put back.

Look at Spring's neck and you are looking at that repair. From here the last stretch is the longest, about sixteen minutes east along the river to Santa Croce.

Piazza Santa Croce: The Dante Monument

Finish at Santa Croce, where Dante stands in marble to the left of the basilica steps. The sculptor, Enrico Pazzi, came from Ravenna, the city that holds Dante's tomb, and the monument was unveiled in May 1865 for the six hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth. It first stood in the middle of the square.

According to the Italian Wikipedia article on the monument, it was damaged in the flood of 1966, removed in 1968, partly so the square could host calcio storico again, and set up in its present place beside the church front in 1971. Inside the basilica is Michelangelo's tomb, which closes the loop with the sculptor who opened this page. The church and its tombs are on Santa Croce, and the streets around it on the Santa Croce neighbourhood guide.

Casa Buonarroti is a short walk away on Via Ghibellina.

One stop is not on the list on purpose: the outside of the Accademia on Via Ricasoli. The David is inside behind the ticket, and the street shows only a door and a queue. For the original, fix a slot with David tickets.

• Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Ferdinando I, free
• Orsanmichele, fourteen niches, free, museum upstairs on the official six-museum ticket
• Mercato Nuovo, the Porcellino, free
• Piazza della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi, free
• Ponte Vecchio, the Cellini bust, free
• Ponte Santa Trinita, the Four Seasons, free
• Piazza Santa Croce, the Dante monument, free

Why the Niches Exist

The building was a grain market before it was a church, and the fourteen niches on its outside walls belong to the city's guilds, one each, every niche holding the guild's patron saint. Each guild filled its own niche, so the walls gathered the best sculptors of the century in one building, and the dates on the niches track the change in style. Nanni di Banco's Four Crowned Saints date from 1408.

Donatello's St Mark followed in 1411 to 1413, and his St George in about 1415 to 1417. Ghiberti's bronze St John the Baptist dates from 1414 to 1416. Verrocchio's Christ and St Thomas, from 1467 to 1483, closes the sequence with two figures in one niche.

All of it is visible from the street, for free, and the dates are from Wikipedia's article on Orsanmichele.

Copies Outside, Originals Upstairs

The statues in the niches today are copies. The originals are mostly in the museum on the upper floor, and Donatello's St George went to the Bargello, where it is on the Bargello reserved entry at €19 (about $22). The Orsanmichele museum opens Tuesday to Sunday 08:30 to 18:30, last entry 50 minutes before closing, and it is closed on Mondays.

Two rules catch visitors out. The upper floor closes when the indoor temperature reaches 34°C, and the museum has no step-free access and no toilets. It publishes no single price of its own: entry comes inside the official 72-hour ticket for six museums at €38 (about $44), which we do not sell.

The church on the ground floor is separate and described under Orsanmichele inside.

The closing days are the ones that decide a plan. Three of the four close on Mondays, and the Opera del Duomo Museum closes on the first Tuesday of each month.

The Accademia: David and the Unfinished Michelangelos

The Accademia on Via Ricasoli 58/60 holds the David in the De Fabris tribune, the four Prisoners along the hall that leads to it, the St Matthew, and Giambologna's full-scale clay model of about 1580 for the Rape of the Sabines, in the Hall of the Colossus. The model is the reason to linger: it shows the group that now stands in marble in the Loggia dei Lanzi at the stage when it was still being worked out. The gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday 08:15 to 18:50, last admission 18:10, and is closed on Mondays.

Two cards cover it. The timed entry €28 (about $33) comes with an audio app, and the one-hour guided tour €41 (about $48) includes the reserved ticket and headsets. The full visit plan is on the Accademia page.

The Bargello: Donatello and the Young Michelangelo

The Bargello on Via del Proconsolo 4 is the sculpture museum of Florence. The building was a seat of government and then a prison before it became a museum in the nineteenth century. Inside are Donatello's bronze and marble Davids, his original St George from Orsanmichele and his Marzocco from the square, Michelangelo's Bacchus, the Pitti Tondo, the Brutus and the David-Apollo, and Giambologna's Mercury.

It opens Tuesday to Sunday 08:15 to 18:50 and closes on Mondays. Two cards cover it, either/or: the reserved entry €19 (about $22) with an audio app, or the skip-the-line entry €18 (about $21). The collection room by room is on the Bargello page.

The Opera del Duomo Museum: The Cathedral's Sculpture

The Opera del Duomo Museum keeps the sculpture taken in from the cathedral, the baptistery and the bell tower and replaced outside with copies. That includes all three sets of bronze baptistery doors, Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise among them, Donatello's Penitent Magdalene and Michelangelo's late Pietà. It opens daily 08:30 to 19:00 and closes on the first Tuesday of each month.

It is not sold on its own on this guide. The dome climb and Duomo pass €53 (about $62) is a 3-day pass that covers the cathedral, the baptistery, the bell tower, the crypt and this museum, with the 463-step dome climb on a timed slot. The David, Cathedral and City Highlights tour at €97 (about $113) takes in the museum with a guide.

The rest is on the Opera del Duomo Museum page.

The Medici Chapels: The New Sacristy

Behind San Lorenzo, the Medici Chapels hold the New Sacristy, the funerary chapel Michelangelo designed for the Medici. Night, Day, Dawn and Dusk lie on the sarcophagi, and the Medici Madonna sits above them. The chapels open Tuesday to Sunday 08:15 to 18:50, last entry 40 minutes before closing, and close on Mondays.

Two cards cover it, either/or: the reserved entry €18 (about $21) with an audio app, or the skip-the-line entry €17 (about $20). The basilica of San Lorenzo next door is a separate ticket. Michelangelo's secret room under the sacristy is a separate booking too, explained on the Medici Chapels page with the tombs and the San Lorenzo context.

The Standard Day

Take the first Accademia slot at 08:15 with the timed entry €28 (about $33), when the gallery has only just opened. From there, start the free statue walk at Piazza Santissima Annunziata, a few minutes away, and follow it through Orsanmichele, the Porcellino and the square to the two bridges. Eat near Santa Croce at the end of the walk, and give the afternoon to the Bargello with the reserved entry €19 (about $22), for Donatello and the young Michelangelo.

It is about three minutes from Piazza della Signoria, so it also fits between the square and the river if you prefer. If you would rather have the outdoor centre explained on the spot, the highlights walk €17 (about $20) and the Medici tales walk €12 (about $14) cover the squares with a guide. The David, Cathedral and City Highlights tour at €97 (about $113) folds the Accademia and the cathedral museum into one guided morning.

For a day shaped around these statues, the florence guided tours page shows which of those options still fit your route.

The Monday Version

The Accademia, the Bargello, the Medici Chapels and the Orsanmichele museum all close on Mondays, but the outdoor statues never close, so the free walk works as printed. Add Casa Buonarroti on Via Ghibellina, open 10:00 to 16:30 and closed on Tuesdays instead, and the Opera del Duomo Museum for the late Pietà on the Duomo pass. Finish with the bronze David on Piazzale Michelangelo, the copy that has the whole city behind it.

The full list of what opens that day is on what opens on Mondays. For a wider frame, Florence in one day and things to do in Florence fit the statues into a fuller plan, and the rest of the city is covered in what to see in Florence.