Concordia

THE UFFIZI GALLERY

Loggiato degli Uffizi, 6
The official page: http://www.uffizi.firenze.it/welcomeE.html
The virtual gallery: http://www.arca.net/uffizi/
Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 8.15am-7.00pm
Closing days: every Monday, January 1, May 1, December 25.
Tickets: Lit. 12.000. Lit. 6.000 for European citizens over 18 and under 25. The access is free for Italian citizens under 18 or over 65 and for foreign citizens from those countries for which reciprocity holds. Tickets sale ends 45 minutes before closing.
Constructed in the mid XVI century by the architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) in the period when Cosimo de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, was bureaucratically consolidating his recent takeover of power. Built in the form of a horse shoe extending from Piazza Signoria to the River Arno and linked with Palazzo Vecchio by a bridge over the street, the Uffizi were intended to house the offices of the magistrature (Uffizi = offices). From the beginning however, the Medici set aside certain rooms on the third floor to house the finest works from their collections; two centuries later, in 1737, thanks to the far-seeing generosity of the last heir of the family, Anna Maria Luisa, their collection became permanent public property.