In the heart of Florence lies a place that reveals a new face with every season. A Renaissance palace that isn’t a dusty relic, but a living, breathing space. Palazzo Strozzi is not just one of the most beautiful buildings in the city — it’s where art seizes all your senses at once.
The story begins in the mid-15th century, when Filippo Strozzi, a political rival of the Medici family and an exiled banker, returned to Florence with a dream: to build the city’s grandest and most magnificent palace. And he did. With its stern yet elegant façade, Palazzo Strozzi commands attention in the square that bears its name. Once known as Piazza delle Cipolle — the “Onion Square” — it used to host a bustling food market. Today, you can still spot a 1762 plaque forbidding the sale of watermelons and scrap metal under heavy fines.
But the palace is no longer a symbol of power and wealth. Today, it’s one of the most dynamic venues for contemporary art. And I return every year — because I know it will surprise me.
In winter 2024, the Dutch artist duo DRIFT transformed the courtyard with Shy Society, a site-specific installation that felt like stepping into another world. Seven large, floating forms danced in slow, hypnotic waves, choreographed to an ambient score by RZA. It was as if the air itself became sculpture.
DRIFT transformed “Shy Society” / Goshka Macuga’s “GONOGO”
Then in spring 2023, a towering rocket rose from the courtyard’s stones. Goshka Macuga’s GONOGO installation took visitors on a journey — not just through space, but through meaning: where are we going, and what are we carrying with us?
Think it can’t get better? In 2022, Olafur Eliasson’s Nel tuo tempo led us through mirrors, lights, shadows, and senses into another dimension of reality. In 2021, Jeff Koons’ iconic balloon dogs and crystal dreamworld took over the palace. In 2020, works by Andy Warhol, Kara Walker, and Tomás Saraceno spoke of pop culture, cosmic dust, and spiderwebs connecting us all.
And I haven’t even mentioned Marina Abramović’s mind-bending performances, or Carsten Höller’s futuristic slides — yes, actual slides — from which I descended with a flower in my hand, 20 meters from the upper loggia to the courtyard. Because really, when else can you do something like that in a Renaissance palace?
Every exhibition is different — but they all share one thing: Palazzo Strozzi knows how to speak of the past and the future without ever letting go of the present. You’re not just a visitor here — you become part of something you can’t quite describe, only feel.
Missed it this year? Don’t worry. Palazzo Strozzi will welcome you again — with new exhibits, new awe. Because some places don’t just survive — they reinvent themselves, over and over again.