The St. Mark's Museum, commonly known as the ‘Beato Angelico's museum’, occupies the spaces of the former Dominican convent that Michelozzo rebuilt in Renaissanche style on the commission of Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici. The charm of this museum is mainly due to the convent's rooms, marked by the works of Beato Angelico, the friar-painter who lived and worked here in the first half of the 15th century.
Numerous panel paintings by Beato Angelico are exhibited in the room dedicated to him on the ground floor. Around the cloister are the rooms in which community life took place: the Hall of the Blessed, the Chapter House (splendid fresco of the Crucifixion). The upper floor, in the corridor and cells, is embellished with an extraordinary cycle of frescoes by Angelico (Annunciation and Stories from the Life of Jesus); in one of these lived the famous preacher Frà Girolamo Savonarola. Also on the first floor is the Monumental Library, a work by Michelozzo in pure Renaissance style.
Returning to the ground floor, one can admire the two refectories (frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sogliani), as well as a topographical section with some architectural fragments from the area of Piazza della Repubblica, at the time of the 19th-century redevelopment of Florence as the capital city of Italy (1865-1871).
Museo di San Marco
Piazza San Marco, 3, 50121 Firenze FI, Italia
The sidewalk is hardly accessible for wheelchairs because it is not connected to the street level. There is a step down to reach the main entrance (ask the staff to use the platform lift). The interior is accessible. There is a platform lift to reach the first floor and a series of ramps between the rooms.
A disabled toilet is on the ground floor. The exit is not compatible, therefore it is advisable to go back and get out through the entrance.
