Il Palazzo Magnifico. Palazzo Medici Riccardi a Firenze. Ediz. italiana e inglese

Palazzo Medici Riccardi now the Provincia di Firenze headquarters, was commissioned by Cosimo the Elder. Built by Michelozzo between 1444 and 1464, it has for centuries been acclaimed as a priceless work of art. It stands in the San Lorenzo district and was the home of the Medici family, who turned it into a cradle of the arts, before passing to the Riccardi family, who adapted it to the new tastes of the times, prone to splendour and magnificent decoration. After Italian Unification, when Florence became the capital of Italy, it housed the Ministry of the Interior and later, in 1944, it was the headquarters of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale. In 1874, the Provincia di Firenze purchased the building, which has continued to house the Prefettura and Biblioteca Riccardiana, from the Italian government and carried on this tradition, implementing an ongoing and active regeneration policy, with efforts that have increased and come to the fore in recent years. The result is a new museum route linking the Luca Giordano Gallery to the Salone di Carlo VIII and the opening of the Galleria dei Medici between Via Cavour and Via de' Ginori. The upgrading of the Palazzo has regenerated the San Lorenzo district, to which Palazzo Medici Riccardi has been inextricably bound throughout the centuries; it has become a new urban pole highlighting places linked to the Medici family and it promotes the city, following in the footsteps of the legacy of the Medici family, which equated its own interests with those of Florence.