Medici Chapels Guided Tour: Chapel of the Princes and Michelangelo’s New Sacristy

Explore Florence's Medici Chapels on a guided tour of the Chapel of the Princes, Michelangelo's New Sacristy, and the Medici tombs.

Getting started

Meet your licensed professional guide at the designated starting point for the Florence Medici Chapels Tour: Michelangelo's New Sacristy and the Medici Tombs. After check-in, your guide organizes the group and explains how the guided visit to the Medici Chapels will unfold. Once everyone is ready, you enter the complex together and begin the tour route inside.

What to expect

Medici Chapels

The Medici Chapels form part of the San Lorenzo complex and serve as the burial place of Florence's most powerful dynasty. You explore the interiors in the company of an expert guide, using the chapels as a lens to understand Florence's Renaissance heritage through art, architecture, and history.

Features

• Inside the Medici Chapels, you visit the richly decorated spaces that house the Medici tombs and hear about their symbolism and what they reveal about the family's ambition and identity. Your guide connects these monuments to the Medici family's influence on Florence and European history.
• A guided tour with a licensed professional guide is included for the entire visit, so you receive a structured historical explanation of the Medici Chapels rather than exploring on your own.
• The guided visit to the Medici Chapels also links to the surrounding historic San Lorenzo district, helping you place the chapels within the wider urban and political landscape of Florence at the time.

Chapel of the Princes

This grand mausoleum is one of the key spaces within the Medici Chapels, created to celebrate the ruling family. You spend time inside the Chapel of the Princes as part of the route, focusing on its materials and decorative program.

Features

• The Chapel of the Princes is known for its semi-precious stone decoration that covers the walls and surfaces, which you can closely observe while your guide points out patterns, materials, and design choices that reflect Medici wealth and power.
• During the guided visit to the Chapel of the Princes, your expert guide continues the historical explanation of the Medici Chapels, tying this space to the specific Medici rulers commemorated here.
• This stop forms a dedicated part of your guided visit to the Medici Chapels, Chapel of the Princes, and Michelangelo's New Sacristy, ensuring that the Chapel of the Princes is explored in depth rather than as a brief photo stop.

Michelangelo's New Sacristy

Michelangelo's New Sacristy is another central stop on the tour and a highlight of the Medici Chapels. You enter this space with your guide and focus on the sculptural program and its connection to the Medici tombs.

Features

• In Michelangelo's New Sacristy, you explore the space that contains some of the most significant Medici tombs, learning how the arrangement, sculptures, and architecture work together to convey power, memory, and spiritual ideas.
• Your licensed professional guide offers a detailed historical explanation of Michelangelo's New Sacristy, explaining how this part of the guided visit fits into the broader story of the Medici Chapels and the family members commemorated here.
• This section completes the guided visit to the Medici Chapels, Chapel of the Princes, and Michelangelo's New Sacristy, so you leave with a connected understanding of how each area contributes to the overall narrative of Medici patronage and Renaissance Florence.