Museo di Palazzo Davanzati

"The palace took the family name of one of the owners (Davanzati) and is a typical Florentine noble house from the fourteenth century, preserved almost intact after the last alterations dated 1838. In 1904 it was restored and furnished in the fourteenth century style by the last owner and in 1910 it was opened to the public as a museum of the typical Florentine house. The building is an interesting example of the transition between the medieval tower house and the Renaissance house. The museum was eventually dismantled and its furniture sold. The Italian State acquired the Palazzo Davanzati in 1951 and finally transformed it into a typical Florentine house from the fourteenth century. The rooms of the Palazzo Davanzati are impressive, starting with the inner courtyard with a water well, a real luxury for a private residence at that time. The rooms of the Palace are richly decorated with colourful and grotesque frescoes, the most famous of which are the Room of the Parrots (Sala dei Pappagalli) and the Room of the Peacocks (Sala dei Pavoni). In this last room is the Madonna col Bambino recently attributed to the young Filippo Brunelleschi. Another important work that you can see in this museum is the Virgin of Mercy (Vergine della Misericordia) from the Della Robbia workshop. All the rooms of the museum are filled with furniture dating from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, most of which is made in Florence or Tuscany. Also worthy of note is the family tree of the Davanzati family and a valuable collection of lace from the Tuscan artisan tradition."