In which town near Florence did Galileo Galilei die?

Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, a hilltop area south of Florence, on 8 January 1642.

By the time of his death, Galileo was living at Villa Il Gioiello in Arcetri under house arrest imposed after his 1633 trial by the Roman Inquisition. He had been forced to recant his public support for Copernican heliocentrism, but continued working and receiving visitors. His final major work, Two New Sciences, was published in 1638 while he was under restriction.

Galileo died aged 77 after suffering a fever and heart palpitations. Arcetri was then a rural area associated with Florence; today it is known for historic villas, the Arcetri Observatory and its connection with Galileo’s final years.

A common mix-up is to choose Pisa because Galileo was born there, or Padua because he taught at the University of Padua from 1592 to 1610. Siena is also in Tuscany, but it was not his death place. His burial story is separate: he was eventually reburied in Florence’s Basilica of Santa Croce in 1737.