The Michelangelo Museum is located at the fortress of Caprese Michelangelo; it consists of three main buildings, the Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo Clusini and the Corte Alta, and a garden with outdoor exhibition.
The original nucleus of the museum, founded in 1875, revolves around the Palazzo del Podestà, a building dating back to the first half of the 15th century, which was the residence of the Florentine Podestas who held an annual office here. The community of Caprese, together with that of Chiusi della Verna, submitted to the Florentine Republic from 1384. Among these podestas there was Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, Michelangelo’s father, in 1474-1475: an autograph document by Ludovico, found in 1875 in the Archives of the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, attests the birth of his son Michelangelo Buonarroti in Caprese on 6th March 1475 and bears witness to his baptism in the Church of San Giovanni Battista. The Palazzo del Podestà is therefore considered the birthplace of the great artist.
The museum has been enlarged over time and currently presents five main thematic nuclei
- The fortress of Caprese and its history
- Michelangelo Buonarroti
III. Giovanni Santini
- The small Italian sculpture of the 19th century
- The sculpture of the 20th century