San Marco Museum Tickets
While visiting Florence you will want to stop by the 13th century Dominican Monastery of San Marco. Founded in 1436 it is today a great tourist attraction for its architectural, artistic, religious and cultural importance in the history of Florence. With this ticket you will save time and energy by skipping the lines, avoiding the hours you could possibly spend waiting for your turn at ticket-offices. With this ticket you will receive entrance to San Marco’s Museum (Museo di San Marco) and have free reign to explore the halls, rooms, corridors, chapels, refectory and cloisters of the structure.
San Marco’s Monastery
San Marco’s Monastery took the place of a previously existing monastery of another order when Cosimo I de’ Medici influenced the renovation and encouraged the establishment of a Dominican community in Florence. He hired the famous Italian architect Michelozzo to plan the building’s renovation and today it is a great example of early 13th century architecture, with a simple, elegant and functional style that greatly reflects the standards of Renaissance design. The building remained a monastery until 1869 when a great part of the building, following some renovation, was dedicated to the Museum of Ancient Florence and later also to the monographic museum dedicated to Beato Angelico, the artist that painted the many beautiful frescoes within the monastery. San Marco’s Monastery was also declared that year a ‘monument of national importance’.
San Marco’s Museum
The Museum of San Marco maintains much of the atmosphere that once belonged to the Dominican convent. The great attraction of this museum is the architectural and artistic importance of the structure, particularly because of the extensive frescoes that decorate the walls of the monastery buildings. At the time in fact the extent of the decorations was greatly unusual but hoped to be a great educational tool for visitors and worshipers. Featured in the museum today is the collection of the works of Fra Angelico that were brought together at the monastery in the 20th century. Another important section of the museum is dedicated to work by Fra Bartolomeo, while another section is devoted to fragments of sculpture and architecture from buildings of central Florence that were demolished in the 19th century.