The Stibbert Museum is one of the most charming and unusual museums in Florence. It is a house-museum created by Frederick Stibbert (1838-1906), born in Florence of English origin, who had this villa at the slopes of the Florentine hills transformed into a neo-Gothic castle with rooms destined to scenographic collections: European, Islamic, Japanese armoury objects presented as groups of fully armed warriors.

The collection, left to the city of Florence upon Stibbert’s death, includes an extensive and famous arms collection, as well as art and daily life objects of the European, Islamic, Far Eastern civilization, in particular Japan. The painting collection proposes paintings with armed scenes and scenes in customs, and also great works of Botticelli, Crivelli, Bronzino, Suttermans, Allori and others. The other side of the building features the fancy private flats, furnished and decorated according to 19th century criteria, assigning the re-evocation of a style to each room; neo-Renaissance for the dance hall, rococo for the small halls, Empire for the bedrooms. The same eclectic taste and curiosity for the past and exotic style characterise the adjacent park, decorated by woods, pavilions, statues, false ruins and a small Egyptian temple.