Built on the site of an Etr­uscan set­tle­ment, Flo­rence, the sym­bol of the Renais­sance, rose to eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al pre-emi­­nence under the Medici in the 15th and 16th cen­turies. Its 600 years of extra­or­di­nary artis­tic activ­i­ty can be seen above all in the 13th-cen­­tu­ry cathe­dral (San­ta Maria del Fiore), the Church of San­ta Croce, the Uffizi and the Pit­ti Palace, the work of great mas­ters such as Giot­to, Brunelleschi, Bot­ti­cel­li and Michelan­ge­lo.