Opificio or manufacture: the museum focuses on the output and history of the Court Manufacture established by Ferdinando I dei Medici in 1588, which was specialized in pietre dure, ‘hard’ or semi-precious stones.
It contains furniture (cabinets, tables, panels for the Chapel of Princes in San Lorenzo) decorated a commesso, that is with different-coloured stones cut and arranged so as to form pictorial compositions, or with painted stone or in scagliola (a very light kind of plaster).
The workshop exhibits include samples of materials, workbenches and tools. The Opificio still restores mosaics made from semi-precious stones.
Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Via degli Alfani, 78, 50122 Firenze FI, Italia
The main entrance is accessible with wheelchairs (pavement connected to the street level).
To reach the ticket office, the bookshop and the toilets there is a step that can be overcome with a platform lift; another platform is at the entrance and exit of the museum, and there is another one in a hall. A stair lift is available to visit the upper floor (but it is not suited for electric wheelchairs).
The museum is equipped with toilets for disabled people on the ground floor.
