Medici Chapels
You reach the Medici Chapels from Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, behind the church of San Lorenzo. You can get there from the Duomo (cathedral) by taking Borgo San Lorenzo to Piazza San Lorenzo. Then reach the chapels from Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, behind the church of San Lorenzo.
Address: Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 8:15–18:50. Closed on Monday.
Admission: €11.
The crypt:
It contains the tombs of 49 members of the Medici family.
Chapel of the Princes:
It was begun under Cosimo I in 1601 to house the sarcophagi of 6 grand dukes.
Its monumental dome rests on an octagon whose walls are entirely covered with a pietra dura decoration: polychrome marbles, semi-precious stones, jaspers, porphyry, alabaster, lapis lazuli, corals and gilded bronze were bought throughout Europe.
New Sacristy:
A narrow corridor leads to this mausoleum, intended to receive the burials of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his son Giuliano, his grandson Lorenzo II and his brother Giuliano. Michelangelo, architect, painter and sculptor, was entrusted with this monumental work and would never finish it. He builds a chapel on the same model as Brunelleschi's Sagrestia Vecchia, but raises the room by an intermediate level and chooses to place the tombs against the walls. The tomb of Lorenzo II, nicknamed the Thinker, shows him as a meditative Roman general, lost in his thoughts. The two statues at his feet are the allegory of Dusk, a man falling asleep, and of Dawn, a woman waking. Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours, is likewise shown as an energetic commander-in-chief, which was his function in Rome. At his feet are Day, an unfinished male figure, and Night, a woman with the attributes of sleep. The tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent and of his brother Giuliano were never realized. They rest together in a simple sarcophagus.
