Brunelleschi Rotunda

A short walk from Piazza Santissima Annunziata is the Brunelleschi Rotunda , a sober building with a long history.

Filippo Brunelleschi designed it in the 1430s as a centrally planned building, part of the Santa Maria degli Angeli Monastery complex. The date 1437 can still be read engraved in the masonry. The rotunda as a building type, inaugurated by Brunelleschi, was particularly popular from the late 15th century until the mid-16th century. 

The building, however, was not completed. The walls were covered with a roof in the 17th century, and in the 19th century rooms were built at the top, used by sculptor Enrico Pazzi as a studio.

The Rotunda was remodeled by Rodolfo Sabatini in 1937 following Brunelleschi's design : an attempt was made to complement the Renaissance structures with a new portion with a dry language more related to the contemporary.

After various subsequent uses, the building has recently been used as the home of the Medici Museum.