PALAZZO MEDICI, Chapel

To the right of the entrance underneath the courtyard's portico, a staircase leads to the first floor where you can visit a jewel that has been left untouched since the mid-1400s, during Cosimo the Elder's times: the Magi Chapel.

In this limited space (only small groups can visit the chapel for up to a quarter of an hour) you can see an exuberance of extreme refinement: the golden ceiling, the wooden panels inlaid along the walls and doors, the beautiful floor with colored marble inserts, including a large porphyry disc that was brought in from Constantinople for a huge expense.

The only non-original detail is the altarpiece by Filippo Lippi, which is a copy of the one preserved in Berlin. But you should pay the most attention to the cycle of frescoes on the walls, which with an incredible vivacity depict the Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem and their lavish procession. Among the many painters working in Florence shortly after the mid-1400s, Cosimo the Elder chose Benozzo Gozzoli for this work, a very trustworthy collaborator of Fra Angelico: the painter blessed the Medici with a spectacular, truly princely result....