Contemporary art in Florence: Museo Novecento

It is wonderful to stroll down the streets of the historic center of Florence and enjoying the city from every point of view, but during the summer months, being able to bear the stifling heat that grips the Tuscan capital can be difficult.

Fortunately, many are the museums where to take refuge from the heat and feast your eyes on the wonders of Renaissance art. In addition to the most famous ones, such as the Uffizi, the Accademia Gallery, Palazzo Pitti, the Bargello Museum, Palazzo Vecchio, and the most beautiful churches in the city; we recommend adding the Museo Novecento to the list.

Its inauguration in 2014, after 50 years of waiting, gave Florence a museum of Contemporary art that would make it possible to linger no longer solely on the past and go beyond the Renaissance art for which the city has always been famous.
In the location of excellence that is the former Spedale delle Leopoldine in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, the museum itinerary winds through 15 rooms, retracing the 20th century backwards.

Many of the works in the collection reached Florence after the flood of 1966, following the appeal that the critic Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti addressed to the art world, asking artists and collectors to donate a "new" artwork to Florence to compensate for the great losses suffered by the city heritage during the flooding.
Over 280 artists immediately responded to the appeal, and soon more donations arrived, which flowed into the Novecento Civic Collection.
Over 300 artworks on display, including works by Lucio Fontana, Emilio Vedova, Sergio Scatizzi, Fortunato Depero, Renato Guttuso, Giorgio De Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Filippo De Pisis, Mario Sironi, Marino Marini, Giacomo Manzoni and many more.
In addition to the precious permanent collection, installations, special projects and the rich calendar of temporary exhibitions of the Museo Novecento will always keep the visitor pleasantly busy.