San Niccolò Oltrarno: Michelangelo's Hiding Place
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the modest church on Via di San Niccolò, its facade plain and unfinished, its door often closed, its bell tower rising above the rooftops behind. Of all the churches in Florence, this is one that most visitors walk past without a second look.
Key Facts
| Place | San Niccolò Oltrarno: Michelangelo's Hiding Place |
|---|---|
| Address | Via di San Niccolò, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 43.76460, 11.26120 |
| Part of Walk | Florence's Green Hill: Bardini Garden, San Miniato & Piazzale Michelangelo |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the modest church on Via di San Niccolò, its facade plain and unfinished, its door often closed, its bell tower rising above the rooftops behind. Of all the churches in Florence, this is one that most visitors walk past without a second look. It holds one of the best stories of the walk.
In August 1530 the siege ended. Florence surrendered, the Republic fell, and the Medici came back with a list of names. Near the top of it was Michelangelo, the man who had built the defences against them, even though he had grown up in the Medici household and worked for a Medici pope.
So he hid. According to Vasari, Michelangelo took refuge here, in the bell tower of San Niccolò, sheltered by the parish priest, while the Medici's men searched the city. In 1975 a small room with charcoal drawings on its walls was discovered under the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo, and some scholars believe he hid there as well. Either way, the pope who had been besieging Florence soon decided he needed his sculptor more than his revenge, and Michelangelo was pardoned and sent back to work on the Medici tombs.
Inside the church, if you are lucky enough to find it open, look for the fresco in the sacristy of the Madonna handing her girdle to Saint Thomas, attributed to Piero del Pollaiolo. And on the walls of this street look for the small plaques that mark the height of floods: in November 1966 the Arno rose higher than the doorways here, and the church was filled with water and mud.
And that is the end of the climb and the descent. You started on a bridge of walled-in hermits, walked through wisteria and olive groves, followed Galileo uphill and the martyr Miniato to his hill, and came back down to the hiding place of Michelangelo himself. The river is just behind you, and the bars of Via di San Niccolò are waiting... you have earned a glass.