The museum occupies a vast area of the Dominican convent of San Marco and preserves its atmosphere intact. Founded in 1436 and designed by the architect Michelozzo, the convent played an important role in the religious and cultural life of the city, as evidenced by the story of Friar Girolamo Savonarola.

The museum’s fame is mainly due to the paintings of Friar Beato Angelico, one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, who frescoed many rooms of the convent. Other paintings by Friar Angelico, from various origins, were collected here in the twentieth century, thus the museum offers an extraordinary documentation of the painter’s activity.

Also significant are the collections from the sixteenth century, with works by Friar Bartolomeo, and the section dedicated to artifacts from buildings in the historic center demolished in the nineteenth century.