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The Accademia: Michelangelo's David and the Prisoners

Michelangelo was twenty-six when he began the David and twenty-nine when he finished it. It stood in the open air in front of the Palazzo Vecchio for more than three and a half centuries, and since 1873 it has stood here.

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Tickets
From €28.75
Open
Tue to Sun, 8:15 to 18:50
Closed
Mondays, 1 Jan, 25 Dec
Allow
1 to 1½ hours

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    What to see at the Accademia Gallery

    1. The David

      Walk all the way round it. From the front it is calm. From its right side you see the frown and the tension in the neck. The right hand is too large, as a boy's hands are, and the veins on it stand out.

    2. The Prisoners

      Four male figures struggling out of the rough stone, begun for the tomb of Julius II. You can see the marks of the different chisels, and where he stopped.

    3. Saint Matthew

      The only one of twelve apostles ordered for the cathedral that Michelangelo ever started, twisting forward out of the block.

    4. The Rape of the Sabine Women, in plaster

      Giambologna's full-size model for the marble group in the Loggia dei Lanzi, three figures in one spiral, stands in the first room.

    5. The hall of plaster casts

      The long room of the nineteenth-century sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini is crowded with white plaster portraits and monuments, still marked with the points used to copy them into marble.

    6. The musical instruments

      The instruments of the Medici court, among them a viola and a cello by Stradivari and early keyboards by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who invented the piano in Florence.

    Tickets and tours for the Accademia Gallery

    • Sold by GetYourGuide

      Florence: Timed Entry to Michelangelo's David + Audio App

      Reserved entry to the Accademia Gallery at a set time, with an audio guide on your phone.

      Included

      • Entry to the Accademia Gallery at a reserved time
      • An audio guide on your phone

      From

      €28.75

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    Visiting the Accademia Gallery: hours and admission

    Opening hours

    Tuesday to Sunday
    8:15 to 18:50, last entry 18:10
    • The rooms of musical instruments and the first floor close at 18:40.
    • Closed on Mondays, on 1 January and on 25 December.

    Who gets in free

    • Everyone, on the first Sunday of each month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November.
    • On those days reservations are not taken: you wait your turn at the door.

    Getting there

    On foot
    About fifteen minutes from Santa Maria Novella station. Five minutes from the Duomo, straight up Via Ricasoli.
    Tram
    Lines T1 and T2 stop at Santa Maria Novella station. T2 comes from the airport.
    By car
    The old centre is a restricted traffic zone, watched by cameras. Leave the car outside it.

    Address

    Galleria dell'Accademia
    Via Ricasoli 58/60
    50122 Florence, Italy

    Entrances

    The entrance and the ticket office are at Via Ricasoli 60. Visitors with a reservation and those without wait in separate lines on the pavement. All the rooms open to visitors can be reached in a wheelchair.

    On the map

    Before you go

    • Book a timed ticket. The pavement of Via Ricasoli has a queue for most of the day, and those with a reservation use a separate line.
    • The museum is small. An hour does it, and an hour and a half if you look at the paintings and the instruments.
    • It is closed on Mondays. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month, with no reservations and a long wait.
    • Go to the David first, then come back down the hall for the Prisoners, which most people hurry past on the way in.
    • The Museum of San Marco, with Fra Angelico's frescoes, is two minutes away and far quieter.

    A statue made for a square, kept in a hall

    The David was carved between 1501 and 1504 from a block of marble that two other sculptors had started and given up. It is 5.17 metres high, the first colossal marble figure made since antiquity, and it shows the boy before the fight, not after it: the sling over his shoulder, the stone in his hand, his eyes on Goliath.

    It was meant for a buttress of the cathedral and was set up instead beside the door of the Palazzo Vecchio, as the emblem of a republic that had just thrown out the Medici. It was unveiled there on 8 September 1504. In 1873 it was moved indoors to save it from the weather, and the copy that stands in the square was put up in 1910.

    The gallery was founded in 1784 by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo as a collection for the students of the academy of fine arts next door. The hall that leads to the David is lined with four of the figures Michelangelo began for the tomb of Pope Julius II and never finished. They are still half inside their blocks, and they explain how he worked better than any book.

    Accademia Gallery: common questions

    What are the opening hours of the Accademia Gallery?
    Tuesday to Sunday: 8:15 to 18:50, last entry 18:10. The rooms of musical instruments and the first floor close at 18:40. Closed on Mondays, on 1 January and on 25 December.
    Is the Accademia Gallery ever free?
    Everyone, on the first Sunday of each month and on 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. On those days reservations are not taken: you wait your turn at the door.
    What does the ticket include?
    Entry to the Accademia Gallery at a reserved time. An audio guide on your phone. It is sold by GetYourGuide.
    Where is the real David by Michelangelo?
    In the Galleria dell'Accademia, in Via Ricasoli, where it has stood since 1873. The David in Piazza della Signoria is a marble copy of 1910, and the one on Piazzale Michelangelo is a copy in bronze.
    How long does the Accademia take?
    About an hour. The gallery is small, and most of the time goes on the David and on Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners in the hall that leads to it.
    How tall is Michelangelo's David?
    5.17 metres, about seventeen feet, without its base. It was carved from a single block of Carrara marble between 1501 and 1504.

    What visitors say about the Accademia Gallery

    Rating from Google

    4.6

    58,499 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 11 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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