Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
€3.50,buyticket just inside cloister next door,€6combo-ticket covers
Laurentian Library; March-Oct Mon-Sat 10:00-17:30, Sun 13:30-17:30; Nov-Jan Mon-Sat
10:00-17:30, closed Sun; last entry 30 minutes before closing.
Visiting the Church:
The facade is big, ugly, and unfinished, because Pope Leo X (also
a Medici) pulled the plug on the project due to dwindling funds—after Michelangelo had
laboredonitforfouryears(1516-1520).Inside,though,isthespiritofFlorenceinthe1420s,
with gray-and-white columns and arches in perfect Renaissance symmetry and simplicity.
The Brunelleschi-designed church is lit by an even, diffused light. The Medici coat of arms
(with the round pills of these “medics”) decorates the ceiling, and everywhere are images of
St. Lawrence, the Medici patron saint who was martyred on a grill.
Highlights of the church include two finely sculpted Donatello pulpits (in the nave). In
the Martelli Chapel (left wall of the left transept), Filippo Lippi's
Annunciation
features a
smiling angel greeting Mary in a sharply 3-D courtyard. Light shines through the vase in the
foreground, like the Holy Spirit entering Mary's womb. The Old Sacristy (far left corner),
designed by Brunelleschi, was the burial chapel for the Medici. Bronze doors by Donatello
flank the sacristy's small altar. Overhead, the dome above the altar shows the exact arrange-
ment of the heavens on July 4, 1442, leaving scholars to hypothesize about why that partic-
ular date was used. Back in the nave, the round inlaid marble in the floor before the main
altar marks where Cosimo the Elder is buried. Assistants in the church provide information
on request, and the information brochure is free and in English.
Nearby:
Outside the church, just to the left of the main door, is a
cloister
with peek-
a-boo Duomo views and the
San Lorenzo Museum.
This collection of fancy reliquaries is
included in your church admission, but is hardly worth the walk, except to see Donatello's
grave. Also in the cloister is the
Laurentian Library
(€3, €6 combo-ticket with church, in-
cludes special exhibits, generally Mon and Fri-Sat 9:30-13:30, Tue-Thu 9:30-17:15, closed
Sun). The library, largely designed by Michelangelo, stars his impressive staircase, which
widens imperceptibly as it descends. Michelangelo also did the walls in the vestibule (en-
trance) that feature empty niches, scrolls, and oddly tapering pilasters. Climb the stairs and
enter the Reading Room—a long, rectangular hall with a coffered-wood ceiling—designed
by Michelangelo to host scholars enjoying the Medici's collection of manuscripts.
A
street market
bustles outside the church (listed after the Medici Chapels, next).
Around the back end of the church is the entrance to the Medici Chapels and the New Sac-
risty, designed by Michelangelo for a later generation of dead Medici.
The burial site of the ruling Medici family in the Church of San Lorenzo includes the dusky
Crypt; the big, domed Chapel of Princes; and the magnificent New Sacristy, featuring archi-
tecture, tombs, and statues almost entirely by Michelangelo. The Medici made their money
