Palazzo Pitti – Florence

Palazzo Pitti in Florence, located in the Oltrarno area, now part of the Uffizi Gallery circuit, hosts five museum sections, such as the Palatine Gallery, the Modern Art Gallery, The Treasury of the Grand Dukes and the Boboli Gardens, with the Porcelain Museum at the Palazzina del Cavaliere. The first core of the Palace was built in 1458; originally, it was conceived as the private residence of the banker Luca Pitti. When the Pitti family fell into disrepair, Eleonora di Toledo and Cosimo the First decided to buy the building that was then enlarged and restored over the centuries, not only architecturally but also within its boundaries, transforming a quarry in the beautiful gardens known as Boboli.

The entire complex, with the end of the Medici dynasty in the eighteenth century, passed to the Habsburg Lorraine family; starting from the Grand Duke Leopold, the Palace was enriched with the collections of the family, also making structural and decorative changes. During the Napoleonic government the Emperor took over the complex, but he later returned it to the Lorraines.

When Tuscany was annexed to the Reign of Piedmont, Palazzo Pitti passed to the Kings of Savoy and finally, with the post-unitary applications, became a National Museum.