Rucellai Palace

Palazzo Rucellai is one of Italy’s most elegant Renaissance palaces. Its façade, designed around 1465 by Leon Battista Alberti, is almost an illustration of his celebrated treatise on architecture, De Re Aedificatoria. An exceptionally refined combination of architectural styles and decorative elements adorns the pietra forte stone front overlooking Via della Vigna Nuova. The street bench running along its base and the upper loggia are characteristic Renaissance features. The palace was the first of several works Alberti carried out for the powerful Florentine Rucellai family, followed by the completion of Santa Maria Novella’s façade and the small Holy Sepulchre shrine in the church of San Pancrazio, now home to the Marino Marini Museum. The interior of Palazzo Rucellai is not open to visitors.