Free Admission to the Uffizi
How to visit Uffizi for free and why you should do it? Description, history, collection of paintings, address, opening hours, ticket prices 2023.
The Uffizi Gallery is the main art museum in Florence, along the way it is also one of the oldest in the world. Many travelers who are going to visit the capital of Tuscany, in principle one of the most popular cities in Italy, are actually going to pay a visit to the famous Gallery first of all.
Which shouldn’t be surprising. After all, the masterpieces of the Uffizi collection are a couple of excellent works by Leonardo da Vinci: The Annunciation of 1472 and the unfinished Adoration of the Magi. As well as paintings by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Giotto, Sandro Botticelli, Caravaggio, Veronese, and other Italian painters.
Also in the halls are paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Durer, Lucas Cranach. An incredibly large collection of drawings and engravings, ancient Greek sculpture, numbering over 2 thousand units, has been collected.
It’s all worth seeing! And if you get into the Uffizi Gallery for free, then it’s twice as good, isn’t it? After all, in the end, there are a lot of interesting places in Florence, for visiting which you have to pay money!
Free Tickets to the Uffizi
It is necessary to document the right to free admission upon receipt of tickets!
The categories of visitors entitled to a free visit to the Uffizi are quite numerous. Moreover, on every first Sunday of the month, anyone can view the museum’s collections for free. If, of course, he is ready to fight for this right after standing in line for several hours.
The right to free entrance to the Uffizi Gallery has:
- Kids under the age of 18 (0-17) of any nationality. Children under the age of 12 are exclusively accompanied by adults
- Persons with disabilities
- Guides and translators
- Scientists, students and university teachers
- Journalists registered with the Italian Association of Journalists
- Italian citizens, living abroad
- Employees of the Italian Ministry of Culture
- Members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
Citizens of the European Union aged 18-24 can also save a lot when buying tickets (2 €). The designated benefit is also provided to citizens of Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Uruguay.
The full list of preferential categories of citizens available on the official website – uffizi.it/en/pages/free-and-reduced-tickets.
Information for Visitors
Address: Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6, 50122 Florence, Italy
Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 8.15-18.50.
The Uffizi Gallery is closed on Mondays, January 1, May 1 and Christmas
Ticket prices: adult – 12 €
Brief History of the Uffizi
The main art museum of Florence is also one of the oldest in the world. The Uffizi Gallery itself was built in 1560-1581, placing it next to the Palazzo Vecchio, the center of the city’s power structures. Initially, the new building was intended to house administrative services, as well as the tribunal and the State Archive.
The construction of the building, which has received an interesting layout – it represents two parallel extended buildings, connected by an impressive arch along the banks of the Arno River, – was started by Giorgio Vasari. After his death, the construction was continued by Bernardo Buontalenti.
According to the idea of the architects, the buildings were supposed to have maximum glazing, and the Doric columns of the ground floor formed an open gallery for walking. Even during the construction of the Uffizi, paintings were placed in it, marking the beginning of an impressive Medici art gathering.
The collection expanded rapidly and eventually occupied all the halls of the building. Already in the XVI century, citizens of Florence interested in painting, were allowed into the Uffizi on request for free. And in 1765, the museum officially opened its doors as an art gallery for everyone.
Subsequently, due to the lack of exhibition space, some of the paintings and sculptures from the Uffizi collection were transferred to other museums in Florence. For example, to the Palatine Gallery in Pitti. But even those masterpieces that are displayed in the halls attract millions of tourists every year.
