The great Michelangelo Buonarroti was born here on 6 March 1475 during his father's six-month posting here as a podestà (administrator) for the Medici. English-language panels outline details of his life and work, and there is a collection of 19th-century casts of his sculptures, including his San Giovannino, which was destroyed when the Konigliche Museum in Berlin was bombed in 1945. Also here is a collection of contemporary sculptures by Italian artists including Emilio Greco, Vincenzo Gemito and Marcello Tommasi.
Below the house is the 13th-century Chiesa San Giovanni Battista, where Michelangelo was baptised. Ask at the museum if you would like to visit it, as the doors are rarely open.
