Housed in two buildings, Palazzina Uzielli and Castello dei Conti Guidi, with over 60 models of machines and tools with precise references to Leonardo’s codes, the museum is one of the largest and original collections dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, architect, technologist and engineer. Crossing the enigmatic Piazza dei Guidi, re-designed in 2006 by the artist Mimmo Paladino, one arrives in the Palazzina Uzielli which houses the ticket office and the first rooms which are dedicated to machines used in construction, textiles and clockwork. The original nculeus and the collection of the more famous Leonardo “inventions” is displayed within the Castle of Conti Guidi: it is here that the futuristic war machines, the beating wing, the motorised tank and in the large Sala del Podestà, the working model on a 1:2 scale of the crane which Brunelleschi used to complete the dome of the Duomo in Florence. The Castle also hosts an entire room dedicated to the lesser known studies that Leonardo undertook in the field of optics and which formed the basis of his pictorial technique. In spring and summer it is possible to visit the panoramic terrace at the top of the Castle tower to take in the view of the colline del Montalbano and the fertile Arno river landscape.
