Florence, Michelangelo's Secret Room will be allowed to continue visiting. With restricted access

Green light for the continued opening to the public of Michelangelo’s Secret Room, the small room under the New Sacristy of the Medici Chapel Museum in Florence containing drawings attributed to Buonarroti. The Stanza has been open for the first time to visitors on a continuous basis since November 15, 2023, nearly fifty years after its discovery. Now, after the great success and sell-outs recorded and given the positive feedback from the environmental monitoring conducted in the first seven and a half months of continuous opening, the outcome of which was followed very closely by the top management of the Ministry of Culture, Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has given a positive opinion to the decision of Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums and avocating director of the Bargello Museums, to extend the opening of the Secret Room in the same way from August 1 onward.

Visitors will then be able to access Michelangelo’s Secret Room in limited groups of a maximum of four people at a time. 10 meters long and 3 meters wide, and 2.50 meters high at the apex of the vault, the Stanza contains a series of figure wall drawings that were discovered in 1975 by then-director Paolo Dal Poggetto. Drawn with charred wood sticks and sanguine, varying in size, in many cases overlapping, Dal Poggetto attributed them mostly to Michelangelo.

The then-director speculated that the artist had found refuge in the room in 1530, when the Prior of San Lorenzo, Giovan Battista Figiovanni, protected him from the vengeance of Pope Clement VII, who was enraged because the artist, during the period when the Medici were driven from the city, had served as a military overseer of the fortifications during the brief period of republican rule (1527-1530). Having obtained the family’s pardon, after about two months-which, according to reconstruction, should be between the end of June and the end of October 1530-Michelangelo returned free and resumed his Florentine assignments, until he finally left the city for Rome in 1534. The drawings, which are still being studied by critics, according to Dal Poggetto’s thesis, were made during the period when the artist found refuge in the room and allegedly used the walls as a sort of sketchbook, to “sketch out” some of his ideas for the works in the New Sacristy, such as the legs of Giuliano de’ Medici, duke of Nemours, quotations from antiquity, such as the head of the Laocoon, and drawings related to other sculptures and frescoes, including the Sistine Chapel.

“The heritage of state museums must be accessible,” commented Massimo Osanna. “It is with this conviction that we have decided to continue to give visitors the opportunity to enjoy, up close, this small, extraordinary environment. Thanks to the continuous and constant monitoring carried out by the team of the Bargello Museums together with the restorers of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and by the reassurances that come from their work, we continue with the offer of this visiting experience: a unique possibility in the world, which has aroused extraordinary interest in recent months.”

Visiting modalities

The Secret Room is accessible by reservation only, to a maximum of four people in groups and accompanied, up to a maximum of 100 people per week. Reservations will be active starting Tuesday, July 2, 2024. It is open on Mondays (at 3, 4:30 and 6 pm), Wednesdays (at 9 am, 10:30 am, 12 noon, 1:30 pm, 3 pm, 4:30 pm, 6 pm), Thursdays (at 9:00, 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00), Fridays (at 15:00, 16:30, and 18:00), and Saturdays (at 9:00, 10:30, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00, 16:30, 18:00). The maximum stay inside the room is 15 minutes, accompanied by the Museum’s reception and security staff. Since access to the room requires descending a narrow and cramped staircase, the room is not accessible to the disabled and, for safety reasons, to children under 10 years old. The entrance ticket costs 20€ per person (2€ euros the reduced ones; free for under 18s) to which must be added the cost of the compulsory reservation (3€) and the price of the entrance ticket to the Medici Chapels Museum (9€ full, 2€ reduced). A total of €32 for full and €7 for reduced tickets.

Photo by Francesco Fanfani. Courtesy Bargello Museums

Florence, Michelangelo's Secret Room will be allowed to continue visiting. With restricted access

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