Museo nazionale di San Marco | |
Established | 1869 |
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Location | Piazza San Marco 3, 50121 Florence, Italy |
Type | Art museum, historic site |
Website | Official website |
Museo Nazionale di San Marco is an art museum housed in the monumental section of the medieval Dominican friary dedicated to St Mark (San Marco), situated on the present-day Piazza San Marco, in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The museum, a masterpiece in its own right by the fifteenth-century architect Michelozzo, is a building of very first historical importance for the city, and contains the most extensive collection in the world of the works of Fra Angelico, in the world Guido di Pietro, then later Friar John of Fiesole, who spent several years of his life as a member of the Dominican community here. The works are both paintings on wood and frescoes. The museum also contains other works by artists such as Fra Bartolomeo, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Alesso Baldovinetti, Jacopo Vignali, Bernardino Poccetti and Giovanni Antonio Sogliani.
Until recently San Marco housed a community of Dominican friars, who occupied the Western part of the complex adjacent to the larger cloister. In 2014 the few friars remaining were transferred to join the community at Santa Maria Novella in the city.
From 1934 to 1977 the Catholic politician Giorgio La Pira, who served several terms as Mayor of Florence, lived in the San Marco complex.
San Marco is famous as the seat of Girolamo Savonarola's discourses during his short spiritual rule in Florence in the late 15th century.