The monuments the Renaissance left us in Florence are far too numerous to be studied here in any great detail. My main interest here is to give an idea of what the visitor may see walking on the streets of Florence. Many of the buildings we associate with Florence and which bear witness to the excellence of Florentine architecture in the Renaissance had been in fact in existence in the Middle Ages, but were subsequently continued, altered, modernised or otherwise changed.

While there are examples of buildings constructed entirely during the Renaissance, there are no important churches that were founded during this period.

The Baptistery of St. John was given two new sets of bronze doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti, to the north and to the east, in addition to the Mediaeval south ones by Andrea Pisano. These have all now been substituted by copies. The east doors are quite different from the other sets and are in golden bronze, while the others are dark in colour. These golden doors so impressed Michelangelo that he said they were fit to be the doors of Paradise, and this is the name by which they are now known.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which was founded in the XII century, was almost completed during this period: In the Early XV century, after work had finished on the body of the cathedral, the problem of the cupola remained unsolved until eventually Brunelleschi, a cantankerous, silent man, hit on the solution, but, being unable to explain to the city fathers how he planned to do it, found some difficulty in making his ideas accepted. Construction began in 1420. It was finished in 1436, and the cathedral was consecrated, though the lantern, also started by Brunelleschi, was only completed in 1461 by Michelozzo. A copper ball by Verocchio was placed atop the lantern in 1469. Apart from the façade, the bronze doors and the fringe around the cupola, which was being executed by Baccio d’Agnolo, the cathedral was complete. The façade would remain unfinished until the XIX century, the doors following soon after, while work on the latter was interrupted after being condemned by Michelangelo, never to be resumed.

The Church and Monastery of Santa Maria Novella, in front of the railway station, thought founded in 1278, already had half of a façade in place, made in characteristic white and green marble. Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai commissioned Leon Battista Alberti in 1470 to complete this, which he did admirably, harmonising to perfection the lower and higher parts, so that there is perfect continuity between both halves. Alberti was further commissioned to carry out enlargement work in the church itself by Cosimo I, adding, besides other things, new chapels. A number of the chapels of Santa Moaria Novella have been frescoed by some of the great painters of the Renaissance, notably Ghirladaio and Filippino Lippi.

Though much older, in the Church of Santa Croce there are some monuments from the Renaissance, the best-known being Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel.

The Strozzi family, in a foolhardy bid to outdo the Medici in grandeur, planned their family palazzo near present-day Piazza della Reppublica. It is remarlable not only for its size, but also for the fact, unusual at the time in such a crouded cuty, that it it is a free-standing structure, with doors on all four sides giving each one on to a street.

Dating to a later period is Vasari's Uffizi (a variant of ufficio, that is, office, in Italian), built to house to Medici offices and to serve as a link between several civic buildings, such as Palazzo Vecchio and the so-called "Palazzo Nuovo" (the present-day Palazzo Pitti. The latter is linked to the Uffizi through a covered passageway, the Corridoio Vasariano, that passes over Ponte Vecchio and though the Church of Santa Felicita.

The Palazzo originally contructed for Luca Pitti was bought by Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo de' Medici and considerably enlarged during her the Medici tenure. The Boboli Gardens were begun under Eleonora, who commissioned Il Tribolo to design them. Most of the great artists of the period contributed something to the Gardens: Ammanati, Giambologna and Buontalenti all left their mark.

The Piazza dell Santissima Anunziata is in my opinion one of the finest in the world, almost equal in symmetry to the Place de Voges in Paris. In it we find one of the very first Renaissance buildings of the city, the Opedale degli Innocenti (the Foundling's Orphanage) designed by Brunelleschi.

Santo Spirito is another project by Brunelleschi, though in a much more modest cast that originally envisaged. It was meant to face the river, rendering it visible. As this would have meant a great number of property would have to be bought by the city and demolished, the idea was abandoned in favour of the present solution, where the church faces a piazza, one of the finest in Florence.

San Lorenzo is the church of the Medici, much more than any other one or even the Cathedral. It is located near the family palazzo, which is located in the present-day Via Cavour (formely Via Larga). Though it is one of the oldest of the buildings of Florence, it continued to be added to during the years: Brunelleschi designed the Old sacristy, while the New Sacristy, with the tombs of Giovanni and Lorenzo de' Medici, was designed by Michelangelo. The two latter, together with the Cappella dei Principi — a magnificient form a funerary monument to all the almost all the Medici,

The Ponte Santa Trinita, framed by the Ammanati's statues of the Four Seasons, is considered as the finest of the four old bridges of Florence. It was destroyed by retreating German troops during World War II. The pieces were recovered from the river and painstakingly put together.

Though Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria dates from the Middle Ages, the statues that decorate it (now moslty substituted by copies), date from the Renaissance: Michelangelo's David, Donatello's Judith, Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus as well as the Fountain of Neptune, partly the work of Ammannati and Giambologna. In the nearby Loggia dei Lanz, also dating from the Middle ages, there is the celebrated broze statue of the Medusa, by Cellini, which was recently restored.

The Church of Santa Maria Novella, in the piazza of the same name, is also an earlier building, but the completion of its façade by Alberti has ensured it is forever associated with the Renaissance. Another of Alberti's masterpieces is the façade of Palazzo Rucellai, in Via della Vigna Nuova. Inside there is a marvellous cycle of frescoes by Ghirlandaio, besides perhaps the first masterpiece of perspective: Masaccio's Holy Trinity.

Palazzo Medici-Riccardi was commissioned from Michelozzo by Cosimo the Elder as a private family house. It was to be in no way a public building and was to be simple, according to Cosimo's instructions.

Bianca Capello's eventually the wife of Grand Duke Francesco I, had a private house built on Via Maggio. It is know for the sgraffitto on the façade.

Other churches that were modied or added to during this period were Ognissanti, where there are frescoes by Ghirlandaio and Botticcelli, and Santa Trinita, the church that stands near to Ponte Santa Trinita.

The walls were considerably lowered and modernised during the Renaissance and two forts were built under the Grand Dukes: the Forte di Belvedere (Forte di San Giorgio) and the Fortezza da Basso. Vestiges of the walls remain on the Oltrarno, where they almost completely encicle the city and many of the city gates remain, among them Porta Romana, Porta San Giorgio and Porta alla Croce. The only door that remains intact is Porta San Niccolò, erroneously called Torre San Niccolò.