Part of rVacation.com Network

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

Almost everything you look at outside on the Duomo complex is a copy. The originals came in out of the weather and they are all here, four hundred metres behind the apse: Ghiberti's doors, Michelangelo's last Pieta, Donatello's Magdalene, and the tackle that raised the dome.

Piazza del Duomo 9 • included in the Duomo complex pass • allow 90 minutes

Plan the Museum Get Early Access

Piazza del Duomo 9

Behind the apse of the cathedral, a two minute walk from the dome climb entrance.

Included in the Pass

Covered by the Duomo complex tickets. The pass clock starts at first use, so do the museum on the same visit.

Allow 90 Minutes

Longer than most people budget. The dome building rooms alone are worth twenty of it.

Check the Closing Day

Each monument in the complex closes on a different day. Confirm the museum's before you build an afternoon around it.

Why Visit

The Duomo complex is a set of buildings whose best sculpture is no longer on them. Ghiberti's bronze doors on the Baptistery are replicas. The reliefs at the base of the campanile are replicas. The prophets that stood in the campanile niches, the statues off the medieval cathedral front, both marble singing galleries taken out of the cathedral in 1688: all of it is in this one building, four hundred metres from the cathedral door and behind the apse. The museum reopened in 2015 at roughly three times its old size, in a former theatre, and it is included in the pass most visitors have already bought and then skip. It is the least crowded and the most rewarding hour on Piazza del Duomo.

A Little History

The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore was founded in 1296 to build the cathedral and it still runs the complex today, which is why the museum is called the museum of the works, not the museum of the cathedral. It has held the Opera's own material since 1891. What changed in 2015 was the scale: the collection moved into an adjoining former theatre, and the centrepiece of the new arrangement is a full-scale reconstruction of Arnolfo di Cambio's medieval facade, the front that stood on the cathedral until it was pulled down in 1587 and never replaced until the nineteenth century. The statues are set back into it in the positions they held.

Did You Know?

Michelangelo carved the Bandini Pieta in his seventies, intending it for his own tomb, and then attacked it himself and abandoned it unfinished. Christ's left leg is missing because he broke it off. The hooded figure holding the body up from behind is generally taken to be a self portrait. It is the one work in Florence where you can see a great sculptor lose an argument with his own marble, and the museum shows it without much ceremony, in a room you can walk right up to it in.

THE DOORS THEMSELVES

Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise

Lorenzo Ghiberti spent twenty seven years on the east doors of the Baptistery. They hung on the building until 1990. What is on the Baptistery now is a cast; the ten gilded originals are here, and this is the only place you will ever see them at arm's length.

Two gilded bronze panels of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise seen close, the Jacob and Esau arcade below — **Close enough to read**The panels at the distance Ghiberti carved them for. You cannot get this near the replicas on the Baptistery.

The Creation panel of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise displayed alone in a case, with the making of Adam, the making of Eve and the expulsion in one frame — **The Creation panel**Four episodes in one frame: Adam made, Eve raised out of him by angels, the temptation at the left edge, and the expulsion at the right.

The Jacob and Esau panel of Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, its deep arcade of round arches cut in a few millimetres of bronze — **Jacob and Esau**The panel that taught the century one point perspective. The arcade runs back into a few millimetres of bronze and reads as a whole building.

THE FRONT THAT CAME DOWN

Arnolfo's Facade, Rebuilt Indoors

Arnolfo di Cambio's medieval front stood on the cathedral, unfinished, until 1587, when it was pulled down. The museum has rebuilt it at full scale across one wall and put the surviving statues back in their places.

The unfinished medieval facade of Florence Cathedral rebuilt at full scale across one wall of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo — **The old front, rebuilt**Arnolfo's facade at full scale on a museum wall, with the statues set back where they stood before 1587.

A seated Madonna and Child flanked by saints and standing figures taken off the cathedral's medieval facade — **Statues off the old front**A seated Madonna and Child with saints either side, taken down with the facade and kept for three hundred years without a wall to stand on.

MICHELANGELO AT SEVENTY-NINE

The Bandini Pieta

Carved for his own tomb, broken by him, abandoned, and finished off by a pupil. Four figures, one of them almost certainly him.

Michelangelo's Bandini Pieta, the hooded figure supporting the dead Christ from behind — **The hooded figure**The figure holding the body up from behind is generally read as Michelangelo himself. It only works from this side.

Michelangelo's Bandini Pieta seen from the front, the body of Christ folding down between three figures — **From the front**The body folds down through the group and out of the stone. The left leg is gone because he broke it off.

TWO SINGING GALLERIES

Donatello and Luca della Robbia

Both cantorie were built for the cathedral in the 1430s, both were taken down in 1688, and both are here facing each other. Luca's children sing and play by the book. Donatello's putti have got loose.

Donatello's cantoria, a frieze of dancing putti running behind a screen of paired colonnettes inlaid with gold mosaic — **Donatello's putti**A continuous frieze of children running behind a screen of paired colonnettes, with gold mosaic packed in behind them so the marble reads against a glitter.

Donatello's marble cantoria shown at eye level, its putti frieze above a cornice of dark inlaid discs — **At eye level**It was built to sit high on a cathedral wall. Here it is at standing height, which is not how anyone was meant to see it.

Luca della Robbia's cantoria, panels of singing and playing children beneath a carved inscription band — **Luca della Robbia's gallery**Children singing and playing, panel by panel, under a carved band from Psalm 150: praise him with the psaltery and the harp.

Three relief panels from Luca della Robbia's cantoria hung separately on a museum wall, singers and a lute player — **The panels shown alone**Some of Luca's reliefs are hung separately from the structure, which is the only way to see a whole panel at once.

CARVED IN POPLAR

Donatello's Penitent Magdalene

Late Donatello, cut in wood rather than marble or bronze, gilded, and unlike anything else he made. The 1966 flood damaged it and the cleaning that followed brought the gold back.

The back of Donatello's Penitent Magdalene, where the carved and gilded hair falls the whole length of the figure like a garment — **Hair like a garment**From behind, the hair is the whole figure: carved in long strands the full length of the body and still holding its gilding.

Donatello's Penitent Magdalene lit against a dark museum wall, the wood surface still carrying its gilding — **Against the dark**Lit against a dark wall, the gold in the wood comes back and you can see what the cleaning after the 1966 flood recovered.

OFF THE BELL TOWER

The Prophets from the Campanile

The niches on Giotto's campanile hold copies. These are the marbles that came out of them, carved to be read from far below and now standing at floor level a metre away.

A bald and hollow-cheeked marble prophet from the niches of Giotto's campanile, mouth open, standing free of the wall — **The bald one**Bald, hollow cheeked, mouth open, and carved to be seen from sixty feet below. Florence has called this type of figure lo Zuccone, the pumpkin head, for five centuries.

A bearded marble prophet from Giotto's campanile, one hand pulled up into his beard, heavy drapery falling to the base — **The bearded prophet**One hand pulled up into the beard, the drapery doing the rest of the work. Read it from below and the folds resolve.

A marble prophet taken off Giotto's campanile, holding a scroll against his hip — **A prophet off the tower**Out of its niche and free standing, which is not the angle it was cut for. The backs of these figures were never meant to be seen.

HOW IT WAS ACTUALLY DONE

Models, Tackle and Tools

The rooms nobody expects: wooden models of the dome and its lantern, and the hoisting gear, chains, blocks and stone carts from the building site itself.

A large model of Brunelleschi's dome and drum hung above the floor of the museum, its marble facing painted in — **The model of the dome**A large model of the drum and dome hung above the floor with the marble facing painted in, so you can walk under it.

A ribbed wooden model of the dome and its lantern shown in a case under Filippo Brunelleschi's name — **Under Brunelleschi's name**A ribbed model of the dome and lantern in a case, labelled to Filippo Brunelleschi.

The model of the dome's lantern, its buttress scrolls curling out around a tall white spire — **The lantern model**The lantern's buttress scrolls curling out around the spire. Brunelleschi won the lantern competition too and died before it was finished.

Iron tongs, a hoisting frame and a stone cart from the building of the cathedral dome, shown in a museum case — **Tackle from the site**Iron tongs, a hoisting frame and a stone cart. Every course of that dome went up on gear like this.

Chains, hooks, wooden blocks and pulleys from the machinery Brunelleschi used to raise the dome — **Chains, blocks and pulleys**The working end of the machinery: chains, hooks, wooden blocks and pulleys off the cathedral building yard.

A mason's bench, hoisting rope and hooked tackle from the cathedral building yard — **The mason's bench**A bench, rope and hooked tackle. The least glamorous case in the museum and one of the best.

Live Prices & Availability

🎫 Booking Tips

The museum is on the same pass as the dome and the campanile. There is no separate queue worth planning around.
Complex passes run on a clock from first use. Fit the museum into the same window rather than coming back.
Last entry is well before closing. Do not leave it to the end of the afternoon.

⏰ Best Times to Visit

Most people do the dome first and go straight to lunch. Come here instead and the rooms are close to empty.
Late afternoon is the quietest hour. The Magdalene room in particular is often yours alone.
This is the complex's wet weather answer. All of it is indoors and none of it involves stairs.

🎨 Seeing It Well

Start at the rebuilt facade wall. Once you have seen where the statues stood, every room after it makes more sense.
The Bandini Pieta is free standing. Walk all the way round it. The hooded head only reads from one side.
The two cantorie face each other across the room on purpose. Stand between them and compare.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it worth it if I have already seen the cathedral?

More so, not less. Most of the sculpture you looked at on the outside of the complex is a modern copy. The originals are in here, at eye level, indoors, with nothing between you and them.

Are the Gates of Paradise here or on the Baptistery?

Both, in a way. The doors on the Baptistery are faithful replicas cast from the originals. The restored originals are in this museum, sealed in a climate-controlled case, and you can get closer to them than you ever could outside.

Which Michelangelo is in here?

The Bandini Pieta, sometimes called the Florentine Pieta or the Deposition. It is late work, carved for his own tomb, damaged by him and left unfinished. It is not the Pieta in St Peter's and it is not the David.

Can I see the two cantorie together?

Yes. Donatello's and Luca della Robbia's singing galleries both stood high on the cathedral walls until 1688 and both are here, reassembled at a height where you can actually read the carving.

Continue Your Italian Journey

Explore more destinations in our Italian travel network

🏛️ Rome 🚤 Venice 👗 Milan 🍕 Naples 🍝 Bologna 💕 Verona 🍷 Tuscany 🌊 Amalfi Coast 🏘️ Cinque Terre 🌋 Sicily 🇮🇹 rItalian

More journeys: 🌺 rHawaii ✈️ rVacation 📷 rPhotography 🍽️ rDining

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tours and stays we would book ourselves.