Casa Martelli (Palazzo Martelli) is a historical house-museum in Florence, which shows the heritage of noble Florentine families through the interiors of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries with a collection of paintings, sculptures and household items.
On the site of the current palace stood the old houses of the patrician family of Florence - Martelli, dating from the twenties of the sixteenth century.
In 1627, after the marriage of Senator Marco Martelli and his cousin Maria di Baccio Martelli, the area of the palace was changed by the purchase of other adjacent buildings. Since 1738, Archbishop Giuseppe Maria Martelli of Florence and bailiff Niccolo Martelli have begun a new reconstruction of the building, carried out with the help of architect Bernardino Churini, artists Vincenzo Meucci, Bernardo Minozzi and Niccolo Contestabile and plasterer Giovanni Martino Portogalli, which significantly transformed the building.
Valuable in the house was the family art gallery, transformed in the 18th century by Marco, Niccolo's son. During the same period, Marco commissioned various artists, led by Tommaso Gherardini, several frescoes with mythological and festive subjects of the family, while the Italian painter Luigi Sabatelli decorated the arch of the staircase of the house, where two "jewels" of the family were placed in a prominent place: David and the Martelli coat of arms by Donatello (both works are kept in the Bargello Museum).
During the nineteenth century, many families of the old aristocracy found themselves in crisis, including the Martellis, who began the gradual dispersal of the art gallery. In 1986, when the last heiress, Francesca Martelli, disappeared, giving the palace and all the family property to the Florentine Curia in her will.
In 1998, the Curia sold the complex to the Italian state, which restored it and opened a museum in the former Martelli family nest.
From the outside, the Martelli house has a rather simple and discreet facade with partially buffered arched openings, smooth hewn wood frames and an arched portal on the ground floor framed by a rectangular frame. On the second (in Italian, the first) floor there is a balcony with a wrought-iron balustrade.
In the tabernacle on the facade of the building there is a Madonna with Child and San Giovannino by Mino da Fiesole.
The lobby of the house leads to a small courtyard with arches covered with glass windows.
From the courtyard you can go to the stairs leading to the first floor, to a room with frescoes imitating a gazebo (called a "Winter Garden"), and, on the left, a small courtyard where the door leads to a passage - a former private passage leading to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. On the right, a door leads to a large courtyard, where there is a service area with so-called "bathrooms", painted in 1822 with bucolic scenes attributed to Niccolo Contestabile. This environment in the house was designed to shelter from the summer heat.
The staircase to the second floor is notable for the forged artistic railings and the coat of arms of the Martelli family, with the image of a golden griffin on a red background.
Then there are the premises of the house, including the red hall and the art gallery.
The rooms are rich in masterpieces, such as the "Adoration of the Baby" by Piero di Cosimo, two wedding panels of the family by the Italian painter Beccafumi, magnificent canvases by Luca Giordano and Salvator Rosa, as well as some objects, furniture, antique tapestries and decorations.
Practical information
Entrance to the museum is free. Visiting the museum is possible at certain hours with a guide.
The Casa Martelli Museum is part of the Bargello Museum, which also includes: the Bargello National Museum, the Medici Chapel at the Church of San Lorenzo, the Orsanmichele Church Museum and the Davanzati Palace Museum.
Information about the opening hours of the museum, the cost of tickets (if the conditions of the visit change and those will be necessary) and the conditions of visits, we recommend checking on the official website of the Bargello Museum: bargellomusei.beniculturali.it.
Address of the Martelli House-Museum: Via Ferdinando Zannetti, 8, 50123 Firenze FI, Italy.
Coordinates of the Martelli House Museum: 43°46'26.6"N 11°15'12.7"E (43.774061, 11.253536).
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