Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence tickets: which one to buy

The basilica and the Old Sacristy are covered by one ticket, and the Laurentian Library, reached from the cloister, is a separate one; a combined version covers both and is the better buy, since the library staircase is one of Michelangelo's strangest inventions. The Medici Chapels behind the church are a state museum with their own entrance and ticket on the far side of the building, which regularly confuses visitors who think they have bought everything. Audio guides are available.

Guided tours of Medici Florence include San Lorenzo and cost several times these tickets. The unfinished facade means the church is easy to walk past; the entrance is on the right-hand side of the raw brick front. The market stalls that surround it are pushed back from the door but still make the approach chaotic. Tickets are sold at a window in the cloister rather than at the church door, and the queue for the Medici Chapels forms in a different street entirely.

Visiting Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence: what to see

San Lorenzo claims to be the oldest church in Florence, consecrated in 393 when it stood outside the walls, and it served as the cathedral for three centuries. It was the Medici parish church, and in 1419 Giovanni di Bicci paid Brunelleschi to rebuild it; the result is the first fully Renaissance church interior, grey pietra serena on white plaster, laid out on a module so regular that the whole nave can be read as arithmetic. The Old Sacristy, also Brunelleschi, has stucco roundels and bronze doors by Donatello, who is buried nearby.

Two bronze pulpits, Donatello's last work, stand in the nave with reliefs finished by his pupils after his death. The facade was never built: Michelangelo won the commission in 1518, quarried the marble, and the project was cancelled, leaving the rough brick that faces the square today. Filippo Lippi's Annunciation hangs in a side chapel, and the Martelli chapel holds a relief by Donatello of the Ascension in almost flat carving.

Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence opening hours and the best time to go

Open Monday to Saturday from mid-morning to late afternoon and on Sunday afternoons from March to October only, with the library keeping shorter hours and closing at lunchtime. The interior is bright and even, so the hour matters less than in most Florentine churches. The surrounding market is busiest in the middle of the day; the Mercato Centrale food hall behind the church stays open into the evening.

Florence is crowded from April to October. Dress code is enforced at the door. Photography without flash is allowed. Allow an hour for church and sacristy, ninety minutes with the library. The Medici Chapels need a separate hour and are best done on the same visit while the family's story is fresh. The leather and souvenir market around the church runs from morning to early evening and is best avoided if you want to photograph the facade.