The Bargello National Museum is housed in the ancient Palazzo del Podestà in Florence which, with a royal decree of 22 June 1865, became the first Italian National Museum dedicated to the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Starting from that same year, some of the most important sculptures of the Renaissance , including masterpieces by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and Cellini , mostly coming from the Medici-Grand Ducal collection , merged into the palace. Later the museum was enriched with superb examples of bronzes, majolica, waxes, enamels, medals, ivories, tapestries, seals and textiles, also coming in part from the Medici collections, from suppressed convents and from private individuals. Among the most important bequests is the donation of Louis Carrand , antiquarian from Lyon, who in 1888 linked his collection of over 2,500 works of decorative arts and paintings to the Bargello.

The Bargello National Museum unfolds on the three floors of the building: on the ground floor you can admire the fascinating overall view of the courtyard and the Michelangelo Room with sculptures by Buonarroti, Cellini, Giambologna, Ammannati. On the first floor there is the imposing Sala di Donatello with the most famous works of the Florentine artist (David, Attis, San Giorgio, Marzocco), the majolica sculptures by Luca della Robbia, the bronze tiles by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi ; at the same level there are in various rooms the collections of Islamic art , from the Carrand donation, the Chapel (with the oldest effigy of Dante Alighieri), the Sala degli Avori , the Sala del Trecento , the Sala delle Maioliche Italian .

On the top floor there is one of the main collections of masterpieces by Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia, the Sala dei Bronzetti, the Sala di Verrocchio, the Sala del Medagliere, the Sala dell'Armeria where the surviving pieces of the dispersion of the armory are exhibited medicea. With the recent reform of the Ministry, the Museum has been endowed with autonomy and is the leader of other related Florentine museum institutes (Museum of the Medici Chapels, Museum of Palazzo Davanzati - Museum of the Ancient Florentine House, Museum of Orsanmichele, Museum of Casa Martelli ).