Палаццо Медічі-Ріккарді Palazzo Medici Riccardi

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The Palazzo Medici Riccardi is a palace of the Medici family, built by the architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo by order of Cosimo the Elder in 1444. This famous Florence landmark is one block from Piazza Duomo. The Medici Riccardi Palace is the first example of the secular buildings of Florence in the early Renaissance. The regular quadrangular building contains in the depth of its walls the same regular courtyard, surrounded by arcades, in which lemon trees are planted. Many other buildings were later built on the model of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, and its shape eventually became common among Renaissance palaces in Italy.

According to the customer's plan, the first floor of the palazzo, lined with rough rust, was to symbolize the inviolability of the Medici. In the premises of the first floor there were stables, servants' rooms, kitchen.
On the second and third floors, the facades of which were covered with smoother slabs, were the apartments of the owners. In 1517, one of the loggias of the palace was walled up, and there were windows with arrow-shaped niches - tambourines made by Michelangelo.

The most famous building of the Medici Riccardi Palace is the Chapel of the Magi, also created by architect Michelozzo. The main decoration of the chapel is a fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli "The Walk of the Magi to Bethlehem". It depicts the owners of the castle in the image of the Magi, and also easily recognizable famous historical figures who gathered in the city in the Cathedral of Florence in 1439.