Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Halfway through the 15th Century Luca Pitti entrusted Brunelleschi with a large building project in the Boboli hills. Work began in 1457 but was only completed after the middle of the 16th Century by the Medici who brought it from Pitti who went bankrupt in the process of trying to outdo the palatial splendor. The building was enlarged, the interior decorated luxuriously and the Boboli hills were landscaped into gardens. It then became the residence of the Lorena family who constructed, in the 18th Century, two lateral wings with porticoes which came round either side of the central piazza. It was the residence of Vittorio Emanuele II when Florence was the capital from 1865 to 1871. In 1919, it became state property and visitors were permitted entry to the Royal Apartments, the Galleria Palatina, the Museo degli Argenti, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, the Galleria del Costume, the Museo delle Porcellane, the Museo delle Carrozze and the Giardino di Boboli. Temporary exhibitions are shown in the White Room.