Description
The Basilica of Santa Croce is Florence's great Franciscan church, on the square of the same name east of the center: a masterpiece of Italian Gothic, with frescoes by Giotto and the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and Rossini.
Ugo Foscolo called it the temple of "Italy's glories," and ever since it has been Italy's pantheon. But it is also a museum of seven centuries of art: frescoed chapels, sculptures by Donatello, Brunelleschi's most harmonious chapel.
The interior is huge and bare, as the Franciscan spirit demanded: three aisles divided by octagonal pillars, a timber-trussed ceiling and a central nave more than 115 meters long. The floor still holds 276 marble tomb slabs.
Along the aisles you meet the great Italians. In the right aisle is Michelangelo's tomb, designed by Vasari, with Painting, Sculpture and Architecture mourning him. Next come Dante's cenotaph, Alfieri carved by Canova, Machiavelli, Rossini and Foscolo.
Opposite, at the start of the left aisle, rests Galileo, in a tomb that mirrors Michelangelo's. On the same side is also the splendid pulpit by Benedetto da Maiano, with scenes from the life of Saint Francis in gilded panels.
At the far end, beside the altar, the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels hold the frescoes Giotto painted late in life, between 1320 and 1325: in the Death of Saint Francis the friars grieve with astonishingly true gestures.
The right aisle also holds Donatello's Annunciation, in pietra serena with gilding. His wooden Crucifix is in the chapel at the end of the left transept: according to Vasari, Brunelleschi found it too "peasant-like" and carved one himself to show him how it should be done.
From the cloister you enter the Pazzi Chapel, one of Brunelleschi's masterpieces: gray pietra serena, white plaster and the twelve big medallions of the apostles by Luca della Robbia. In the museum, in the old refectory, is Cimabue's Crucifix.
It all began with a group of Franciscan friars in the 1200s, on a small island between two branches of the Arno, outside the walls. In 1294 the city decided to give them a grand church, probably designed by Arnolfo di Cambio.
The facade of white and green marble came only in the 1800s. It was largely paid for by a wealthy English Protestant, Sir Francis Sloane, who asked to remain anonymous. His architect, Niccolò Matas, is buried beneath the entrance threshold.
Its fame as a "temple" arrived in the 1800s. In 1871 Foscolo, who had died in England more than forty years earlier, was buried here: he had asked to rest beside Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo. Rossini followed him.
Don't miss
• Giotto's Bardi and Peruzzi chapels.
• Michelangelo's tomb.
• Galileo's tomb.
• The Pazzi Chapel.
• Cimabue's Crucifix.
Did you know?
• Dante has only a monument: Ravenna never gave back his remains.
• Galileo probably rests alongside his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste.
• Cimabue's Crucifix, devastated by the 1966 flood, has become its symbol.
Ugo Foscolo called it the temple of "Italy's glories," and ever since it has been Italy's pantheon. But it is also a museum of seven centuries of art: frescoed chapels, sculptures by Donatello, Brunelleschi's most harmonious chapel.
The interior is huge and bare, as the Franciscan spirit demanded: three aisles divided by octagonal pillars, a timber-trussed ceiling and a central nave more than 115 meters long. The floor still holds 276 marble tomb slabs.
Along the aisles you meet the great Italians. In the right aisle is Michelangelo's tomb, designed by Vasari, with Painting, Sculpture and Architecture mourning him. Next come Dante's cenotaph, Alfieri carved by Canova, Machiavelli, Rossini and Foscolo.
Opposite, at the start of the left aisle, rests Galileo, in a tomb that mirrors Michelangelo's. On the same side is also the splendid pulpit by Benedetto da Maiano, with scenes from the life of Saint Francis in gilded panels.
At the far end, beside the altar, the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels hold the frescoes Giotto painted late in life, between 1320 and 1325: in the Death of Saint Francis the friars grieve with astonishingly true gestures.
The right aisle also holds Donatello's Annunciation, in pietra serena with gilding. His wooden Crucifix is in the chapel at the end of the left transept: according to Vasari, Brunelleschi found it too "peasant-like" and carved one himself to show him how it should be done.
From the cloister you enter the Pazzi Chapel, one of Brunelleschi's masterpieces: gray pietra serena, white plaster and the twelve big medallions of the apostles by Luca della Robbia. In the museum, in the old refectory, is Cimabue's Crucifix.
It all began with a group of Franciscan friars in the 1200s, on a small island between two branches of the Arno, outside the walls. In 1294 the city decided to give them a grand church, probably designed by Arnolfo di Cambio.
The facade of white and green marble came only in the 1800s. It was largely paid for by a wealthy English Protestant, Sir Francis Sloane, who asked to remain anonymous. His architect, Niccolò Matas, is buried beneath the entrance threshold.
Its fame as a "temple" arrived in the 1800s. In 1871 Foscolo, who had died in England more than forty years earlier, was buried here: he had asked to rest beside Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo. Rossini followed him.
Don't miss
• Giotto's Bardi and Peruzzi chapels.
• Michelangelo's tomb.
• Galileo's tomb.
• The Pazzi Chapel.
• Cimabue's Crucifix.
Did you know?
• Dante has only a monument: Ravenna never gave back his remains.
• Galileo probably rests alongside his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste.
• Cimabue's Crucifix, devastated by the 1966 flood, has become its symbol.