Museo di San Marco

The Museo di San Marco occupies a Dominican convent in the heart of Florence that was rebuilt in the fifteenth century by Michelozzo, commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici. Its walls contain one of the most concentrated collections of works by Fra Angelico in existence, including the luminous Annunciation fresco that greets visitors at the top of the dormitory stairs. Each of the monks' cells was decorated with its own devotional fresco, making the upper floor an extraordinary sequence of intimate sacred images painted for contemplation rather than display.

The convent also preserves the cells once occupied by the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola and by Fra Angelico himself, offering a rare sense of the lives lived within these walls. The ground floor houses panel paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and a large Crucifixion fresco in the chapter house. Visitors can currently explore the museum with an entry ticket and audio guide, which provides context for the building's architecture and its remarkable collection of Renaissance devotional art.