Florence is not simply adding a new chapter to its museum history: it is rewriting the map. In 2025, with a total attendance exceeding 3 million visitors, the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze and Musei del Bargello system will be officially launched, one of the most complex and significant museum complexes in Italy and beyond.
The numbers tell an impressive story: seven museums, 50,632 artistic artifacts, 18,610 square meters of exhibition space, and above all, the richest and most significant collection of works by Michelangelo Buonarroti in the world. But what makes this project truly innovative is not the quantity, but the shared cultural vision that underpins it.
Seven places, seven stories, one identity
The Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, the Museo delle Cappelle Medicee, the Museo di Palazzo Davanzati, the Complesso di Orsanmichele, the Museo di Casa Martelli and – once the work is completed – the former church of San Procolo: seven spaces that are different in nature, history, and function, now united under a single management.
At the helm of this new season is Andreina Contessa, who interprets the union not as a simple administrative merger, but as an opportunity to rethink the museum as a living organism, capable of dialoguing with the city, its citizens, and contemporary visitors.
The system can be imagined as an urban constellation: a symbolic map that connects places, recounts relationships, and suggests directions. Each museum is a star with its own light, but it is in the overall design that the profound meaning of the project emerges.
A heritage that finally speaks for itself
Sculptures, paintings, tapestries, ivories, jewelry, majolica, medals, coins, fabrics, musical instruments, furnishings, and ancient weapons: the new system houses one of the most complete and comprehensive collections in Europe. At its heart, as its ideal fulcrum, is Michelangelo, portrayed not only through his most famous masterpieces, but also as an experimental artist, a radical innovator, and a key figure for understanding the very essence of art.
The cultural strategy aims to enhance the unique characteristics of each museum by relating them to each other, creating thematic, historical, and visual connections. It is here that Florence ceases to be a sequence of obligatory stops and becomes a journey of meaning.
Single ticket and unified opening hours: a more accessible city
From March 15, 2026, one of the most concrete innovations for the public will arrive: the cumulative ticket. For €38, it will be possible to visit all the museums in the system in 72 hours, while for €26, visitors will have access to the Accademia Gallery and the Bargello National Museum for 48 hours. A family ticket is also being considered, designed to encourage shared and intergenerational enjoyment of the heritage.
Goodbye to fragmented opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday, all museums (with the temporary exception of Casa Martelli) will be open from 8:15 a.m. to 6:50 p.m. This choice simplifies the experience, redistributes visitor flows, and invites visitors to experience Florence at a slower pace and with greater awareness.
Thematic itineraries: reading Florence through new lenses
Starting in May 2026, the museum system will introduce three cross-cutting experiential itineraries, designed by the internal scientific team. These are not tourist itineraries, but cultural narratives capable of offering a new perspective on heritage.
In the Sign of Genius. Michelangelo is a three-stage journey through the Bargello, the Accademia, and the Medici Chapels, following the artist’s evolution: from Bacchus to David, from the Prisoners to the unfinished, to the extraordinary fusion of sculpture and architecture in the New Sacristy.
Florence and its symbols explores the visual identity of the city through patron saints, heraldry, allegories, and myths, from the Orsanmichele Complex to the Accademia Gallery, restoring the civic and narrative power of the images.
The Art of Detail is a journey through the history of clothing and the applied arts: fabrics, ornaments, accessories, and clothing become a mirror of society, exchanges, and rituals, between the Accademia, the Bargello, Palazzo Davanzati, and Casa Martelli.
Casa Martelli: the return of a symbol
The recent relocation of the Martelli coat of arms to the monumental staircase of the family residence marks an emblematic moment. The large golden griffin on a red field returns to recount Florentine collecting in the 15th century and the link with the Medici, reaffirming the role of art as a language of prestige, identity, and power.
Open construction sites, museums undergoing transformation
The project looks to the future through an extensive program of renovations, restorations, and construction sites open to the public. From the renovation of the Sala di Michelangelo at the Bargello to the restoration of paintings at the Galleria dell’Accademia, to work on the Medici Chapels, Orsanmichele, Casa Martelli, and the future opening of San Procolo, conservation becomes an integral part of the museum experience.
Museums as community spaces
Education, accessibility, and inclusion are the pillars of the new course: music workshops, visits in Italian Sign Language, tactile tours, activities for neurodivergent people, and projects for schools and families transform the museum into a place of connection, not just contemplation.
The stated goal is clear: to give these museums back to the Florentines, strengthening their social and civic role, without giving up on speaking to an international audience.
A new cultural geography for Florence
The Galleria dell’Accademia and Bargello Museums complex is not only one of Italy’s largest museum centers: it is a new urban cultural geography, an invitation to interpret Florence as a choral narrative made up of connections, details, and shared visions.
Seven museums, a single identity, a heritage that continues to question the present. Florence does not merely preserve the past: it connects it, brings it to life, and projects it into the future.
