ABSTRACT
The “Cappella dei Principi” (Fig. 1), an octagonal masonry building, is for importance and magnificence the second Dome in Firenze after Santa Maria del Fiore. The original structure was conceived by the Grand Duke Ferdinando I Medici as family mausoleum, and the work began in 1604 under the supervision of Arch. Matteo Nigetti. The entire structure (crypt, chapel, tambour and dome) was built over about 40 years: the works finished around 1648.The shape of the mausoleum remained untouched until 1740 when Anna Maria Luisa dei Medici commissioned Ferdinando and Giuseppe Ruggieri to modify (to renovate) the external surface of the monument. In particular the circular eyes of the tambour were turned to bellshaped windows, and a new external thick dome was added to cover the existing one. The last intervention on the Chapel ended in the sixties of the last century when the marble covering of the Chapel floor, begun in 1882, was finished.
