Palazzo Medici Riccardi - Florence

Palazzo Medici Riccardi is located on Via Camillo Cavour in Florence, Italy.  It was designed for Cosimo de Medici by architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo and constructed between 1444 and 1484.  Cosimo was a banker and politician and the first of his family to gain power in Florence.  The family would rule the city throughout the Renaissance period.  Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, lived in the palace for much of his life.  In 1489, carrying on the family's tradition of supporting the arts, he brought a young Michelanglo to live with him here in the palace.  In 1494 the Medici were banished from Florence and looters emptied the palace of much of its treasures.  The Medici came back to power in 1512 with the return of Lorenzo's sons, Giuliano and Giovanni, the future Pope Leo X.  The family occupied the palace until 1659, when it was sold to Marquis Gabbriello Riccardi, a member of the Grand Ducal Court.  In more recent years the palazzo was host to an infamous moment in 1938, when Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler met here for a heads of state dinner, shortly before the outbreak of World War II.  Today the palazzo is a museum with an elaborate art collection, including the frescoes painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Capella dei Magi.      

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