Stibbert Museum
The Stibbert Museum is located in Florence, Italy. It offers a view of the extraordinary collections of the founder Frederick Stibbert, a 19th century art collector. This huge collection spans from all over the word. Including English, Turkish, German, French, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Armor. The museum contains the largest collection of Japanese weapons outside of Japan. If you want to see the Japanese rooms you must book in advance for the tour.
Stibbert devoted his life to collecting paintings, porcelain and armor. It's hard to picture how one person can make such an impressive collection. If you are interested in 14th - 17th century arms you should definitely stop by here. There are many rooms filled with very interesting and different styles of armor, swords, guns, and armor for horses.
The full suits on display are remarkable and is quite intimidating to think of how it was worn and used. The collection of swords is staggering. Amazingly there were swords that belonged to Tippu Sultan, King of Mysore and one of Joachim Murat.
Don’t forget to see room entirely dedicated to Napoleon, the highlight is Napoleons costume worn for his coronation as King of Italy.
One of my favorites is the portion on Turkish and Ottoman weapons of the medieval period and those from the European parade.
You can also see a unique scale reconstruction of real riders and horses complete in their armor. The hall of the ride makes us enter into a three-dimensional perspective of a royal procession where everything seems alive.
A beautiful park surrounds Stibbert Museum, including a pond with Egyptian Temple. I brought a picnic lunch and ate in the gardens. The grounds are extensive and serene, so it is a great place to relax after spending countless hours walking around the crowded streets of Florence.
Stibbert Museum is a bit out of range for most of the tourists on foot. However it is very easy to reach with the bus #4, and a short walk uphill.
Phone number: +39 055 486049
Address: Via Federico Stibbert, 26, 50122 Florence, Italy
Hours: Monday through Wednesday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Thursday Closed
Friday through Sunday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
No pictures are allowed.
They only do guided tours on the hour, so try to arrive at the time you want to tour the mansion.
The ticket cost is 8 euros.