Basilica di San Lorenzo
Renaissance basilica with a bare, never-finished brick facade and Medici family tombs inside.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Basilica di San Lorenzo in Florence explains why its brick facade was never finished, tracing back to 1515, when the Medici pope Leo the Tenth returned home to Florence and a competition began among Italy's leading artists, including Jacopo Sansovino, the Sangallo family, and Raphael, for the right to design it. You'll hear how Michelangelo won the commission in 1518 and spent years hauling marble down from the quarries and reworking his plan. The guide also visits the wooden model of his design, still kept at the Casa Buonarroti.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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