Updated: October 2026 · Unofficial guide
The name “Uffizi” simply means “offices” in Italian. The building that today houses one of the most visited museums on earth was originally commissioned in the 1560s by Cosimo I de’ Medici as the administrative centre of the Tuscan state — a workplace for the magistracies of the duchy, designed by Giorgio Vasari.
From the very beginning the building had a second purpose. Cosimo’s court used the upper floor to display the family’s collection of paintings, sculptures and antiquities, and Vasari connected the structure to the Palazzo Vecchio with an elevated walkway over the Arno — the famous Vasari Corridor. When the last Medici rulers added new purchases and commissions, the display slowly became more important than the paperwork below it.
When the Medici dynasty ended in 1737, the last heiress, Anna Maria Luisa, negotiated a remarkable agreement: the entire art collection would remain in Florence forever and would never leave the city. It is thanks to that contract that Botticelli, Caravaggio and Leonardo’s Florentine masterpieces are still shown exactly where they were assembled.
The galleries opened to the public in the eighteenth century and were among the first museums in Europe built around a systematic, educational presentation of art history. Walking through the corridors today, you follow roughly the same route that grand tourists took three centuries ago — only with better lighting and a coat check.
All texts on this blog are original editorial content. Historical facts are summarised from publicly available sources for an informal audience.