In the 15th century, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi added decorative bas-reliefs of the cross and the Florentine lily in the spandrels between the trefoils.

Although most of the Palazzo Vecchio is now a museum, it remains as the symbol and center of local government; since 1872 it has housed the office of the mayor of Florence, and it is the seat of the City Council.

The statuary present at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio is a testament to the fluctuating political atmosphere in Florence from 1504 to 1534, when Michelangelo's David and Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus were created, respectively.

The statuary in front of this political building was commissioned under two different rulers in Florence, David under Piero Soderini and Hercules and Cacus under the Medici.

Amongst the cities depicted are Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava (Pozsony), Prague, Hall in Tirol, Freiburg im Breisgau and Konstanz.

The second courtyard, also called "The Customs", contains the massive pillars built in 1494 by Cronaca that sustains the great "Salone dei Cinquecento" on the second floor.

The Salone dei Cinquecento was built in 1494 by Simone del Pollaiolo, on commission of Savonarola who, replacing the Medici after their exile as the spiritual leader of the Republic, wanted it as a seat of the Grand Council (Consiglio Maggiore) consisting of 500 members.

Da Vinci had finished painting part of the wall, but it was not drying fast enough, so he brought in braziers stoked with hot coals to try to hurry the process.

A legend exists that Giorgio Vasari, wanting to preserve Da Vinci's work, had a false wall built over the top of The Battle of Anghiari before painting his fresco.

Pope Julius II called him to Rome to paint the Sistine Chapel, and the master's sketches were destroyed by eager young artists who came to study them and took away scraps.

On the north side of the hall, illuminated by enormous windows, is the raised stage called the Udienza, built by Bartolommeo Bandinelli for Cosimo I as a place to receive citizens and ambassadors.

In the central niche at the south of the Hall is Michelangelo's noted marble group The Genius of Victory (1533–1534), originally intended for the tomb of Julius II.

The walls in the Room of the Elements are filled with allegorical frescoes Allegories of Water, Fire and Earth and, on the ceiling, represents Saturn.

On the walls are Florentine tapestries with hunting scenes, from cartoons by Stradanus.Beginning in 1540 when Cosimo moved the seat of government here, these rooms were refurbished and richly decorated to be the living quarters of Eleonora.

The carved ceiling of the Hall of the Lilies, as this room is usually called, decorated with fleur-de-lys, and the Statue of St. John the Baptist and Putti are all by Benedetto da Maiano and his brother Giuliano.

The golden fleur-de-lys decorations on blue background on the ceiling and three walls refer to the (short-lived) good relations between Florence and the French Crown.

This door is flanked by two dark marble pillars, originally from a Roman temple.The Hall of Geographical Maps or Guardaroba was an ambitious room that set out to represent the known world of the 16th century through the display of a collection of artifacts and murals of cartography, all seen in relation to scientific instruments of time and astronomy.

The Guardaroba was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany during his major reconstruction of the interior of the Palazzo.

The idea behind the guardaroba is similar to that of late medieval studioli, which were small private study spaces, containing precious collected artifacts.

Vasari's account of the program for the guardaroba highlights Cosimo I's instructions to create a space for some of the more precious items in the Medici collection.

Master carpenter Dionigi di Matteo Nigetti (active in Florence 1565–1579) constructed the finely crafted and carved walnut cabinets and ceiling panels that can still all be found in the room today.

Vasari called the map murals, Tables of Ptolemy, recognising Claudius Ptolemaeus (AD b.127–d.145) significant contributions to the history and progress of cartography.

The map murals were arranged across the cabinet doors in two horizontal rows representing the hemispheres and navigated most of the perimeter of the room, only interrupted at the doorway and window.

"Over the doors of those cupboards within their ornaments, Fra Egnazio has distributed fifty seven pictures about two braccia high and wide in proportion, in which are painted in oils on the wood with the greatest diligence, after the manner of miniatures, the Tables of Ptolemy, all measured with perfect accuracy and corrected after the most recent authorities, with exact charts of navigation and their scales for measuring and degrees, done with supreme diligence; and with these are all the names both ancient and modern.

Up to 300 portraits of famous people of the day hung around highest perimeters of the walls and would be revealed from beneath green cloth curtains.

Vasari intended the worldly representation in the guardaroba to be seen in relation to the larger cosmos, represented by a celestial sphere in the centre of the room and painted constellations on the ceiling.

He also had grand visions of two large globes, a terrestrial and celestial hidden behind a false ceiling that could be lowered impressively via a pulley system into the room below.

It is the relationships between these objects and maps and the context for which they are shown that produces intended symbolic gestures; the clock, in relation to the maps, in relation to the celestial representations were an attempt to generate an effect of possessed knowledge over all space and time and in the case of the guardaroba, Cosimo I de Medici was to be seen as the possessor and purveyor of this knowledge, generating a narrative of his power.

The window looks out over Piazza della Signoria and the room is decorated with birds, animals, fishes, and vegetal elements works by Bachiacca.

This room also holds Adoring Angel by Tino di Camaino from around 1321, a Bust of Saint Antonino in painted plaster from the 15th century, and an embroidery designed by Raffaellino del Garbo.