Palazzo Medici, also called Palazzo Medici Riccardi, is a Renaissance palace located in Florence, Italy. The palace was built between 1444 and 1484. It was well known for its stone masonry, which includes architectural elements of rustication and ashlar.
This tripartite division is emphasized by horizontal string courses that divide the building into stories of decreasing height, which expresses the Renaissance spirit of rationality, order, and classicism on human scale.
The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
Some rooms are equipped with modern conference room equipment and are rented out for outside use.
Perhaps the most important section of the palace is the Magi Chapel, famously frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli, who completed it around 1459.
Gozzoli adorned the frescos with a wealth of anecdotal detail and portraits of members of the Medici family and their allies.
According to the Gospel of Matthew and Christian tradition, the Three Wise Men are said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
