Below Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, in the Medici Chapels of Florence’s San Lorenzo church there is a small and mysterious space, known as Michelangelo’s secret room. It is here that the great artist hid for some weeks to escape the death sentence. In 1530, the Medici had just returned to Florence and all those who had actively taken part in the Florentine Republic (1527-1530) were wanted, including Michelangelo.

Here are some of the masterworks the sculptor created for that new sacristy which counter-balances the old sacristy by the architect of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi.

In 1975, during renovation work, some drawings, sanguine and charcoal sketches re-emerged from the walls of that small room. Many of these refer to Michelangelo’s memoirs or projects of his works. Among the latter there’s the Allegory of Night: a sketch for a statue – which Michelangelo would later create, once he had reconciled himself with the Medici family – still visible in the New Sacristy… the last Florentine masterpiece he sculpted before his final departure for Rome.

We were privileged to see this arcane chamber after having been accepted for a booking five months previously. Only a limited number of persons are allowed at any one time here and of the four booked we were the only two who turned up yesterday in one of Florence’s rainiest days this year. Thoroughly soaked we were admitted down a steep passageway behind the famous statues of Day and Night sculpted by perhaps the greatest artist of the renaissance.

We were thus the only two in Michaelangelo’s hidey hole for a good half-hour … apart, of course, from our guardian, a very personable and well-informed young man from Catania. He filled us in with details about the amazing charcoal sketches, some with sanguinia red pencil touches.

Here is a selection of the photos we took of this hallowed recess. Maybe you may recognize the proto-shapes of statues to come from Mr M. Buonarroti?

It was an amazing experience to be there and think about the confinement in such a small space of this very great artist. I pondered on works of art written in prisons and hidden places: Pellico’ with his ‘Confessions of an Italian’, Dostoyevsky, Ezra Pound and Louis Wain were all names that jumbled into my mind. Does physical confinement open the mind I wonder?

Returning to the new sacristy we entered the huge mausoleum the Medicis built for their family which became extinct with the death of the imbecile Gian Gastone in the eighteenth century. However, all that pomp of marble and gold counted for nothing to me when compared to one of Michaelangelo’s sketches when he was forced to be immured to save his life.

We exited into the the market surrounding the fine Brunelleschi church of San Lorenzo with the rain still pelting down and headed for a bar down a street lined by stalls, almost all of which were manned by orientals selling not so much mangoes and idols but Florentine leather bags …perhaps made in China?

By the evening the rain had ceased and we were able to enjoy the classic view of Florence from the Piazzale named after the city’s greatest artist

Searching through my photos I came across these recording a visit there in 1983.. I would not have recollected the visit if the photos were not there to prove it had occured. I do not know whether we had to book it or even pay for it. Perhaps there was less hype then about the place and, having gained entry to the new sacristy, there would have been no fuss about showing us the secret room. We were young then and married for less than ten years. Hopes sprang eternal: some realised, others, like wanting to have children, dashed to the ground. It was lovely, therefore, to say that we have returned over forty years later to an admired spot of our youth.