Medici Chapels (San Lorenzo)

The Basilica of San Lorenzo was the Medici family's parish church, and its chapels became their mausoleum. From 1520 Michelangelo designed the New Sacristy, sculpting for the tombs of two Medici dukes the celebrated allegorical figures of Dawn, Dusk, Day, and Night, reclining in restless marble—works that redefined funerary sculpture. Nearby, the opulent Chapel of the Princes, begun in 1604, is encrusted with rare inlaid stone (pietra dura) and precious marbles. While hiding here during the 1530 siege of Florence, Michelangelo sketched charcoal drawings on the walls of a small hidden room, rediscovered only in 1975. The Medici Library staircase in the same complex is another of his architectural masterpieces.