Duomo Opera Museum

About

The Opera del Duomo is the institution the Florentine Republic established in 1296 to oversee the construction and maintenance of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. In the late 19th century, rather than transferring major artworks removed from the cathedral to other museums, the Opera converted part of its own office space into exhibition halls, and the museum opened on May 3, 1891. After a major renovation beginning in 2013, the museum reopened in October 2015. It now spans three floors and 28 rooms across roughly 6,000 square meters, displaying more than 700 works. In the hall known as the Paradiso, three bronze doors that once adorned the Baptistery stand together: the south door by Andrea Pisano, and the north door and the Gates of Paradise, both by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The museum also holds Michelangelo's Pietà, made between 1547 and 1555, along with a substantial group of works by Donatello.