"San Marco Museum & Fra Angelico" Top 5 Page for this destination Florence Things to Do Tip by brendareed

The San Marco Museum is housed in the former Dominican monastery of San Marco, a place that Cosimo Medici paid to restore and house his immense library as well as find a solitary retreat from the pressures of his position. The museum is full of beautiful frescoes by Fra Angelico, who was a monk at San Marco.

When you first enter the museum, be sure to step into the room on your right, which at one time was Cosimo’s office. Here are several Fra Angelico frescoes - Deposition, Last Judgment, and a beautiful triptych that was once the altarpiece of San Marco.

Fra Angelico’s beautiful Annunciation is in the hallway at the top of the stairs (be sure to look at it from an angle to see the angel’s wings sparkle from the marble that was crushed into the paints). Fra Angelico painted each of the monks cells in the dormitory and you can walk through and look at the magnificent frescoes in each of the rooms.

At the end of the hallway in the dormitory are the rooms used by Savonarola, the friar that stirred up Florence during Lorenzo Medici’s rule, causing people to briefly return to a more conservative life and throw their jewels, make up, art, books, and other things into Savonarola’s “bonfire of the vanities.” His rooms show is desk and some pieces of his clothing.

On the same floor as the dormitory you can see Cosimo’s library that now houses a nice display of how books were made back in those days, with paints, brushes, and other tools along with some manuscripts on display.

Downstairs in the Chapter Room is Fra Angelico’s Crucifiction that is now showing some damage – note the red areas in the sky – it wasn’t supposed to be red; but that is the under painting where the blue paint has come off (still seen in some places). In the old refectory (now the bookstore) you can see a fantastic Ghirlandaio fresco of the Last Supper. Notice how the ceiling in the painting actually makes the room seem bigger.

The San Marco Museum has a peaceful, calm atmosphere. There were very few people there when we visited. And there is a lot more to see here than I have mentioned; most by Fra Angelico.

Open Monday to Friday: 8.15 am - 1.50 pm; Saturday: 8.15 am - 6.50 pm; open on the first, third and fifth Monday of every month. Holidays: 8.15 am - 6.50 pm; 8.15 am - 6.50 pm: January 6, Easter, Easter Monday; April 25; June 2; August 15; November 1; December 8 and 26; open on the second and fourth Sunday of every month. Closed on: first, third and fifth Sunday of every month; second and fourth Monday of every month. December 25, January 1, May 1.

Entrance: €4

We spent most of the morning in the museum so we took a lunch break before heading to one of the best museums in Florence, the Uffizi. Most of the class wanted to have lunch at the Hard Rock Café, so I went along with them for what proved to be a fun and filling outing.

Address: Piazza San Marco 1 - Firenze
Phone: +39 055 238 8608
Website: http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_san_marco.html