The Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s major museums, traces its origins to 1560 when Cosimo I de’ Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari to design a grand two-winged palace, “on the river and almost in the air,” intended to house the administrative and judicial offices (Uffizi) of the Florentine State.

The same Vasari is also responsible for the construction, five years later, of an elevated gallery that, passing over the Ponte Vecchio and the Church of Santa Felicita, connects the Uffizi to the new Medici residence at Palazzo Pitti and ends in the Giardino di Boboli.

The first true nucleus of the Gallery was created by Francesco I, Cosimo’s son, who transformed the top floor of the Uffizi into a place to stroll, adorned with paintings, statues, and other precious items. He commissioned Buontalenti to create a Tribuna where furnishings and works of art were collected.

Today, the Uffizi hosts an immense artistic heritage, comprising thousands of paintings ranging from the medieval to the modern era, a vast number of ancient sculptures, miniatures, and tapestries.

Famous is the collection of self-portraits, continuously expanded over time with acquisitions and donations from contemporary artists, alongside the collection of the Department of Prints and Drawings.