Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni is a historic building in the center
of Florence, located in piazza di Santa Trinita 1 (along via
Tornabuoni in front of the column of Justice) at the corner of via
Porta Rossa 107r and via delle Terme 18.
The work of Baccio
d'Agnolo, it marked a turning point in the city's residential
architecture, whose ideas, although strongly criticized at first,
were then widely reused and developed in the following centuries.
Since 2018 it has housed the Roberto Casamonti Collection, a
museum exhibition dedicated to modern and contemporary art from the
end of the 19th century to the present day.
The building
appears in the list drawn up in 1901 by the Directorate General of
Antiquities and Fine Arts, as a monumental building to be considered
a national artistic heritage.
Architecture and What to See
The façade is the palace's most
distinctive feature: smooth ashlar masonry with rusticated corners, a
classical portal flanked by columns and topped with an architrave,
square windows with alternating triangular and segmental pediments,
pilasters, niches (originally for statues), belt courses with family
crests, and large overhanging eaves. Stone lions and the poppy emblem
add symbolic flair. These elements marked a bold shift toward symmetry,
proportionality, and classical order in Florentine domestic
architecture.
Inside, focus on the central courtyard (often
accessible for free or with limited restrictions): a serene,
light-filled Classical space with a portico on three sides, columns and
round arches in pietra serena (local gray stone), grotesque monochrome
decorations on the ground and first floors, and elegant sgraffito
(scratched plaster) work by Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini (1477–1548)
adorning the loggia. From openings in the courtyard, you can glimpse the
Column of Justice in the piazza outside (an ancient Roman artifact
topped with a statue of Justice).
On the piano nobile, the interiors
include a majestic hall with a monumental fireplace and a coffered
wooden ceiling by Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo. The Collezione Roberto
Casamonti displays works in rotation across two chronological sections:
Early 20th century to 1960s (artists like Giovanni Fattori, Boldini,
Balla, Severini, de Chirico, Morandi, Picasso, Braque, Ernst, Klee,
Warhol, etc.).
1960s to early 21st century (Pistoletto, Miró, Klein,
Tàpies, Christo, Basquiat, Haring, Kapoor, Abramović, Cattelan, etc.).
The current exhibition (as of recent info) focuses on the latter
period: "Dagli anni ’60 agli inizi del XXI secolo". The juxtaposition of
Renaissance architecture with bold modern/contemporary pieces creates a
striking dialogue. Note that Paolo Uccello's Battle of San Romano panels
(once commissioned for the family) are no longer here—they are now in
the Uffizi, National Gallery (London), and Louvre.
A visit typically
takes 45–90 minutes, depending on whether you linger in the courtyard or
dive into the collection.
Visiting Practicalities (2026 Info)
Location: Piazza di Santa Trinita 1, 50123 Firenze. It's easily walkable
from major sites—near Ponte Santa Trinita, Piazza della Repubblica, and
luxury boutiques on Via de' Tornabuoni. Use Google Maps or the Firenze
mobility app for precise navigation.
Opening Hours (Collezione
Roberto Casamonti on the piano nobile): Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00
a.m.–1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. (last entry 30 minutes before
closing; ticket office closes 15 minutes prior). Closed Sundays,
Mondays, and holidays (e.g., Christmas period, New Year's, Epiphany).
Hours can vary for events—always confirm on the official site.
The
Courtyard: Often described as freely accessible (or with minimal
barriers) for admiring the architecture without a ticket. It's a
peaceful spot even if the upper floors are closed.
Tickets:
Full price: €12.
Reduced: €10 (over 65, groups of 10+, various card
holders like FAI, ACI, Palazzo Strozzi members, etc.).
Youth (6–25
years, or specific students): €8.
Free: Under 6, visitors with
disabilities + carer, FirenzeCard holders, tour guides/journalists
(professional), group leaders.
Audioguide: €5 (recommended for deeper
context on both the palace and art).
Buy online via the official site
(collezionerobertocasamonti.com) or platforms like Artsupp, or at the
on-site ticket office. Advance purchase is wise in high season to avoid
any wait.
Guided Tours: Available by reservation (€15 per person,
includes entry; no reductions). Contact +39 055 602030 or
prenotazioni@collezionerobertocasamonti.com. English options may be
limited—check ahead. Some sources mention Friday guided slots.
Accessibility: The main exhibition is on the first floor (stairs).
Contact the museum in advance for elevator arrangements if needed.
Disabled toilet available; free entry for visitors with disabilities and
carers.
Rules: No touching artworks, no flash photography (non-flash
amateur photos generally OK), no food/drink, no large bags/weapons/etc.
CCTV monitored. Parents supervise children. Quiet respect encouraged.
In-Depth Visiting Tips
Best Time to Visit: Weekday mornings
(right after 10 a.m. opening) or early afternoons for the quietest
experience—Florence's main crowds focus on bigger museums, leaving this
gem relatively peaceful. Avoid peak summer midday heat and weekends if
possible. Late afternoon (before 6:30 p.m. last entry) can feel intimate
as light shifts in the courtyard. Shoulder seasons (spring/fall) are
ideal over summer.
Combine with Nearby Sights: This fits perfectly
into a luxury-historic walk along Via de' Tornabuoni. Pair it with
Palazzo Strozzi (nearby temporary exhibitions), the Church of Santa
Trinita (opposite, with its own art), or window-shopping. Stroll to
Ponte Santa Trinita for Arno views, or continue to the Oltrarno side.
It's a short walk from the Duomo or Uffizi.
Preparation:
Check
the official website (collezionerobertocasamonti.com) the day before for
current exhibition details, any closures, or special events.
Wear
comfortable shoes—Florence involves lots of cobblestones; the palace has
stairs.
Bring a small bag (cloakroom is limited).
If interested in
the art, consider the audioguide or a catalog for context on the modern
pieces in their historic setting.
For Art Lovers: The contrast
between the Renaissance shell and 20th/21st-century works (Pop Art,
Abstract, Conceptual) is the highlight—take time to appreciate how the
collection "converses" with the space.
For Architecture Buffs: Spend
extra time in the courtyard and studying the façade details (look up at
the pediments, crests, and inscriptions). It's a masterclass in early
High Renaissance innovation.
Practical Florence Tips: Florence gets
busy overall—visit this on a day when you're avoiding timed-entry heavy
hitters. Stay hydrated (public fountains nearby), and note that Via
Tornabuoni has upscale cafés for a post-visit break. If you have the
FirenzeCard, use it here for free entry and to maximize value elsewhere.
Potential Drawbacks: Limited public access beyond the courtyard and
piano nobile (private ownership). The modern art may not appeal to
everyone preferring pure Renaissance. Reviews are sparse but positive
for those who discover it—it's intimate rather than overwhelming.
In ancient times here were the houses of the Soldanieri family, who
kept an inn there, then passed to the Dati family, from whom they were
purchased by Bartolomeo Bartolini, who also had Salimbeni in his surname
to recall his descent from the ancient Siena family.
Today's
palace was built by Baccio d'Agnolo between 27 February 1520 and May
1523, as the "Libro della muraglia" informs us, a paper code where the
client Giovanni Bartolini noted all the expenses incurred for the
construction of the family palace ; he also directed himself as an
architect and was paid two gold florins a month.
The building
marked a turning point in Florentine civil construction, inspired as it
is by the 'Roman' style of the sixteenth century, full of ornaments and
classical elements in the relief of the columns on the sides of the
door, in the triangular tympanums, in the protruding members that create
areas of shadow and light. Already Giovanni Cinelli recognized its
primacy in this sense, calling it "the first palagio, which was built
with such ornate architecture", then adding, on the basis of information
provided by Giorgio Vasari: "and to mock the architect, there was at
night hung strings of branches, as is customary in churches for feasts.
But time, which leads and discovers with truth, has since made its
beauty known".
The Bartolini-Salimbeni lived there until the
early nineteenth century. Almost unchanged up to that period, the palace
underwent considerable internal modifications by the architect Giuseppe
Martelli between 1838 and 1839, aimed at transforming, at the request of
the Bartolini heirs, the residence into an elegant hotel (it was the
famous Hotel du North where, among others, the American writer Herman
Melville, the English writer William Makepeace Thackeray, the English
philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, the English botanist and
naturalist Philip Barker Webb, the German writer Herman Grimm stayed).
During the works, the courtyard was partly filled in to obtain
additional rooms and two new windows were opened on the main façade
(later closed during the restoration in the 1960s). In 1863 the building
was then purchased by the Pio di Savoia princes, maintaining its
function as an accommodation facility (however renovated with works
carried out by the architect Vincenzo Micheli between 1864 and 1865)
and, at least until the eighties (in 1875 it had been also declared a
national monument), the excellent reputation.
In the first
decades of the twentieth century it ceased to be a hotel and the spaces
gradually regained their original configuration, compromised by the
previous fragmentation of the premises. However, the deterioration of
the stone facade elements and the high costs for their restoration led
to an exhausting technical-legal dispute that lasted throughout the
first half of the century. While waiting for a substantial intervention
on the factory, however, in 1939, Cesare Benini intervened on the
graffiti of the courtyard, redoing the vast areas that were lost with a
similar technique. The continuous fall of fragments from the facades
finally led to the opening of a restoration site, between 1961 and 1962
(this date was inscribed in the tympanum of the central portal), carried
out on a project by Piero Sanpaolesi with funds from the property, the
Municipality and the Status: given the advanced state of disintegration
of the sandstone elements of the facade, it was decided to completely
replace the completely compromised stone parts, while an experimental
consolidation was carried out for the other ancient ones with "chemical
hardening of the stones by means of imbibition with magnesium
fluosilicates", the results of which were unfortunately negative in the
following years (which does not detract from the importance of the
intervention without which the monument would probably have lost the
entire layout of the façade). Furthermore, as summarized in the catalog
entry for the monumental restoration exhibition in Venice in 1964 -
where a sample of deteriorated stone from the façade was exhibited, half
preserved in its natural state and the other half treated - a
"reinforced concrete counterweight in the attic to bring the center of
gravity of the crumbling cornice in a serious state of degradation back
into its central core of inertia". Simultaneously with the intervention,
the rooms on the main floor were used as the headquarters of the
Consulate General of France. From 1984 these same rooms were occupied by
the offices of the representative office in Florence of Centrobanca
Spa., which restored them under the direction of the architect Alberto
Paoli and the engineer Giuseppe Martini. As part of the same building
site, work was again done on the graffiti in the internal courtyard
(1986-1987) which showed a striking deterioration especially in the
portions resulting from Benini's additions (the surviving original parts
represent approximately 20% of the overall surface), documenting the
various speeches with an illustrative publication.
The building is important for the development of Florentine
residential architecture (and beyond) because it was the first built in
the Roman Renaissance style: initially highly criticized, it was then
copied and marked a fundamental moment of transition from Renaissance
art to that of Mannerism .
In the facade there are numerous
innovations, unknown to the previous buildings: the portal with columns
on the sides and rectangular windows, all surmounted by an architrave
with a frieze and tympanums with a triangular or arched pediment,
instead of the traditional arched openings; the same windows are divided
into four squares each by cruciform stone elements, with a small column
carved on the central vertical element and pilasters at the edges. The
volumes also appear enlivened by the use of protruding members balanced
by niches on the first floor (where statues once stood, removed due to
fierce criticism who deemed them more suitable for the facade of a
church) and rectangular recesses on the second; the corners reinforced
by ashlar stones, around which the already substantial string courses
protrude further, equipped with a frieze (with the emblem of the three
poppies) and the strongly protruding cornice, which has notches of
classical reminiscence. The via bench completes the set. In this way
areas of very clear light and shadow are created, due to the protrusions
and recesses, which give a plastic and chiaroscuro effect unknown to
fifteenth-century palaces, further accentuated by the use of different
stones (the "strong", yellowish one, on the square Santa Trinita,
"serena", dark gray, and "bigia", light gray, on via Porta Rossa).
His style, so original for Florence (just compare the adjacent and a
few years earlier Palazzo Buondelmonti), was not successful among his
contemporaries, indeed numerous criticisms rained down on Baccio
d'Agnolo, as reported by Vasari in his Lives[2 ]. The architect even had
the inscription «Carpere promptius quam imitari» engraved above the
portal, i.e. "Criticizing is easier than imitating". The inscription
«P[er] non d[o]rmire» is instead present in cartouches in the
transversal element of the cross windows. It is the motto of the family,
later adopted also by Gabriele D'Annunzio, to which the ubiquitous
poppies also allude, the flower of opium and therefore of sleep. The
origin of the motto would be a tribute to the promptness with which the
members of the family went to business appointments also sacrificing
sleep, with particular reference to when a member of the family, with
the typical astuteness of merchants, managed to grab a large consignment
of goods by offering an opium-soaked feast to competing buyers the night
before, so as to be the only one to show up for the auction the next
morning.
On the corner with via Porta Rossa is a shield with the
coat of arms of the Bartolini themselves (with a truncated wedged lion).
Of the other shield that marked the corner with via delle Terme, only
the opening in the masonry and the shelf that allowed it to be gripped
remain.
The elevation on via Porta Rossa, although secondary, is
of considerable importance, re-proposing the same design present on the
square, albeit with plastered bottom surfaces (even if graffiti with
imitation brickwork) to replace the stone ones, and the crowning with a
Florentine eaves, as opposed to the Roman one chosen for the main front.
However, the design and decoration remain unchanged, as does the
distribution of the many elaborate windows. On the door at no. 107r
(which once must have served as another access to the building and which
today leads to a commercial establishment), are the heraldic poppies and
the motto «To sleep» written this time in full. Also on this side, in
nos. 99r-101r, is the historic shop of the silversmith Pampaloni, and
the previous sign of the "Libreria Bruno Baccani" is also kept there.
On via delle Terme there are windows of different shapes and sizes
and placed off axis, so that the impression is precisely that of being
in an area of little value. The eaves (as opposed to the main façade
where the Roman type was chosen) is traditionally Florentine style.
Partially uniforming the façade is the plastered base treated with fake
brickwork, however of recent construction, and the street bench. In via
delle Terme, on the opposite side of the road, there were also the
building's remittances and stables, recognizable by the red 51 for the
motto and emblem of the House.
A barrel-vaulted hall leads to the central contrile, of elegant
classicism, where the decoration extends in a more sedate rhythm than
the façade. It consists of a three-sided portico enclosed by columns and
round arches; on one side and a span to the west they were closed to
obtain other rooms; the fourth side has a bar arch that supports the
upper floors. The decorations with graffiti and monochrome grotesques of
this room reach up to the second floor and are attributed to Andrea
Feltrini. On the frieze there are also some oculi originally intended to
house bas-relief medallions. Above the arches runs a series of stone
windows, with the same criss-cross pattern as those on the facade and in
turn dominated by other oculi. The precious capitals and corbels have an
acanthus leaf decoration with two beaded and braided bands, as well as a
fluted band.
On the first floor there is a loggia overlooking the
courtyard with three arches supported by thin arches and a wooden
coffered ceiling. A second loggia, perhaps built at a later time,
dominates the palace and is set back so as not to be visible from the
courtyard or from the outside.
In the interiors there are noteworthy wooden coffered ceilings, in
which the emblem of poppy heads recurs, perhaps executed by the son of
Baccio d'Agnolo, Giuliano, in collaboration with his father (fragments
are preserved in the Medici villa of Cerreto Guidi, where there are also
the original door leaves). Of the pictorial decorations, which once must
have been extremely extensive, only fragments are preserved.
The
Roberto Casamonti collection
During his long activity as gallery
owner of "Tornabuoni Arte", Roberto Casamonti has collected works by the
major Italian and international masters of 20th century art, with some
inclusions of great value also in the 19th and 21st centuries.
The collection, presented to the public for the first time in 2018, is
made up of two sections chronologically ordered and exhibited in
rotation on the noble floor of Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni:
the first
from the end of the nineteenth century to the sixties of the twentieth
century (with artists such as Giovanni Fattori, Giovanni Boldini,
Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi, Giorgio De
Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Georges
Braque, Fernand Léger, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Alberto Burri, Andy
Warhol);
the second from the sixties to the present day (works by
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Paladino, Mario Merz, Alighiero Boetti,
Joan Mirò, Yves Klein, Antoni Tapies, Christo, Luigi Ontani, Gilbert &
George, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Anish Kapoor, Bill Viola,
Maurizio Cattelan, Marina Abramovich).