Florence · Via Ricasoli · Michelangelo's David
Accademia Gallery: tickets, hours and Michelangelo's David
Come face to face with the 5.17-metre David and Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners. Choose your ticket and plan your visit.
Today
Opening hours for every month are on the Opening hours page.
Checked against the official website on 14 November 2026 · Official source
In short
- Ready to go? Pick your ticket below. The entry ticket is the one with the most reviews, and a guided tour is there if you would like to hear the story of the David.
- The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 to 18:50, with last entry at 18:10. It is closed on Mondays, on 1 January and on 25 December.
- Booking ahead is recommended: without a booking, the wait at the entrance can be long. Large backpacks and bags do not go in, because there is no cloakroom.
- In 2026, entry was free on the first Sunday of every month and on a few other days, with no booking: you waited for your turn at the door. We add the free days of 2027 as soon as they are published.
The David, in his own room
Michelangelo signed the contract for the David on 16 August 1501, when he was 26. He worked on a block of Carrara marble that another sculptor had roughed out decades before and left. The statue is 5.17 metres tall and was finished in 1504.
It stood in front of Palazzo della Signoria until 1873, when it was moved to the Accademia. Today it has a room of its own, the Tribuna, lit from above by a dome.
The Prisoners, the unfinished giants
Four unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo line the gallery that leads to the David. They were meant for the tomb of Pope Julius II. The figures seem to be pulling themselves out of the stone.
They arrived at the Accademia in 1909, from the Grotta del Buontalenti in the Boboli Gardens.
The Hall of Colossus and the plaster gallery
The Hall of Colossus takes its name from a giant plaster cast of the Dioscuri. In the middle stands Giambologna's clay model for the Rape of the Sabine Women, from 1582, and the walls hold paintings by Botticelli, Perugino, Filippino Lippi, Ghirlandaio and Paolo Uccello.
The Plaster Gallery holds plaster models by the sculptors Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni.
Musical instruments and early paintings
The museum of musical instruments has old instruments by Stradivari, Niccolò Amati and Bartolomeo Cristofori, the inventor of the piano.
The rooms of the early painters show gold-ground paintings from the 1200s and 1300s, such as Guido da Siena's enthroned Madonna and Child.