Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a rare gem in Florence

One of Florence's jewels is the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, founded in 1932, today one of the most prestigious restoration centers in the world.
Its origins date back to 1588, when Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici needed to train the craftsmen needed to build the Chapel of the Princes in San Lorenzo, which, according to the grandiose project, was to be entirely covered in inlaid marble. He therefore created the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the workshop tasked with collecting and crafting the precious and semi-precious stones needed for the chapel's decoration, which also included works made using the Florentine mosaic technique.
Commesso Fiorentino, or Florentine mosaic, is a mosaic technique in which stones are juxtaposed to use their nuances in order to create pictorial effects. Needless to say, this technique required extremely skilled and experienced craftsmen.

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure's historic headquarters is at Via degli Alfani 78, near the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the museum, archives, and library are located. The other locations specialize in restoration, and are located at the Fortezza da Basso and Palazzo Vecchio.

A visit to the Opificio Museum is a unique experience, well worth adding to your Florence itinerary. Here, you can admire incredibly beautiful works crafted using Florentine mosaic techniques: tabletops, furnishings, coats of arms, paintings and much more, decorated with flowers, still lifes, animals, and various pictorial scenes. Don’t skip it!