ON 13 APRIL 1519, IN THE ROOMS OF THE FAMILY PALACE IN VIA LARGA IN FLORENCE, CATERINA DE’ MEDICI WAS BORN, THE FUTURE QUEEN OF FRANCE. A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER, ON 12 JUNE 1519, COSIMO I DE’ MEDICI WAS BORN AND AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN HE BECAME DUKE OF FLORENCE. FIFTY YEARS LATER, ON 13 DECEMBER 1569, THE VERY SAME COSIMO CONSTITUTED THE GRAND DUCHY OF TUSCANY BECOMING ITS FIRST GRAND DUKE

On 13 April 1519, in the rooms of the family palace in Via Larga in Florence, Catherine de’ Medici, the future queen of France, was born. A couple of months later, on June 12, 1519, Cosimo I de’ Medici was born and at the age of seventeen would become Duke of Florence. Fifty years later, on 13 December 1569, Cosimo himself constituted the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, becoming its first Grand Duke.

500 years after the birth of Cosimo I and Caterina de’ Medici, two key figures in the history of the city of Florence – but also for the events of Italy and France – the City of Florence has become the promoter for the establishment of an Organizing Committee, consisting of 22 city institutions, formalized by resolution of the City Council n. 70 of 26.02.2019. Through the Committee, chaired and coordinated by the municipal administration, with the organizational support of MUS.E, a calendar of events has been created to remember and celebrate their lives and deeds. More than 50 events spread between March and December 2019 with exhibitions, meetings, readings, concerts, and guided tours, opportunities for in-depth analysis and more tastings and “journeys through time”, to discover the parallel lives of Cosimo and Catherine, which intersect several times thanks to the strange interweaving of history and the balance of politics.

A constantly updated calendar will be available on the website: www.500cosimocaterina.it and on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/500cosimocaterina/