Palazzo Rucellai

It is one of the most elegant Renaissance palaces in all of Italy. The façade, designed around 1465 by Leon Battista Alberti, is a sort of illustration of his famous Treatise on Architecture (De Re Aedificaria). The combination of architectural styles and decorative elements that embellish the pietra forte façade, overlooking the elegant via della Vigna Nuova, is extremely refined.

The street bench, which runs at the base, and the upper loggia are typical of this period. It represents the first of a series of interventions that Alberti carried out, nearby, for the powerful Florentine Rucellai family: the completion of the facade of Santa Maria Novella and the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher in the Church of San Pancrazio: currently home to the Museum Marino Marini (important Italain sculptor of the 20th century).

The interior of Palazzo Rucellai cannot be visited.