The Accademia Gallery of Florence was once part of the academy of the fine arts. It was founded in 1784 by the grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who collected a great amount of original and replicated art works. The original gallery hosted two enormous gypsum models of Giambologna's famous Rape of Sabines statue. The gallery was enriched with Gothic and renaissance paintings from churches and convents that Pietro Leopoldo abolished. The Accademia Gallery was chosen to be the new home of Michelangelo’s David due to the fact that the gallery happens to be located in the same square where the young Michelangelo studied sculpting as a child. In 1873 the town of Florence relocated David, which was no longer safe in its original location of Signoria Square. A few decades later some other Michelangelo masterpieces were acquired by the gallery, such as Prisoners, gifted by the nephew of Michelangelo to Cosimo I Medici St. Matthew and Pieta joined the museum. This is how academia became an unofficial Michelangelo museum. Throughout your touring of the gallery, your expert English-speaking guide will bring each masterpiece back to life with inside stories of one of the world’s greatest artists.