Giovanni Michelucci: century-long life!

Among the illustrious presences that have helped make Tuscany a great region, we could not fail to include the great architect Giovanni Michelucci. He was born in Pistoia but worked in this city and the rest of the region producing many works testifying to his great creativity.

Giovanni Michelucci lived a hundred years: in fact, he was born in Pistoia on 2 January 1891 and died in Florence on 31 December 1990, only two days before he was 100 years old. Michelucci was born in a family that owned a well-known foundry specialized in the artistic processing of iron and surely this must have influenced his training. After his architectural studies and dedicating himself to xylography, the turning point of his career occurred in 1933 when he won, together with the Tuscan Group, the bid for the Santa Maria Novella Railway Station in Florence. The structure, which still today is one of the most famous landmarks in Florence, is characterized by a rationalist architectural project, a key element of many of Michelucci’s projects.

Tuscany is dotted with many other works by Michelucci. In Florence, the Motorway Church dedicated to San Giovani is famous and located right next to the A1 motorway. In his hometown of Pistoia, Michelucci designed two very distinguished churches with an avant-garde style: they are the Church of Belvedere, the Church of the Virgin and the Church of Collina. Michelucci did not just work on religious buildings, rather he collaborated in the renovation of some rooms in the Uffizi and designed the Giardino degli Incontri at the Sollicciano prison in Florence. In short, in his ‘century-long life' Michelucci worked throughout Italy but in Tuscany he left several testimonies of his great art.

After all, over the centuries great architects and artists have come and gone throughout the region, making it one of the richest because of the many examples of medieval and Renaissance architecture. How to discover its jewels often hidden in the villages scattered in the hills? That’s simple: book one of our tours in the villages of Tuscany. You can choose between Montepulciano, Pienza, San Gimignano and many others!