Description
Piazza Santa Maria Novella is the large square in front of the basilica of the same name, in the center of Florence. It is a wide, open space, dominated by the church's facade, with two obelisks resting on bronze tortoises.
The square was opened by the city government starting in 1287, by tearing down houses, to make room for the crowds that flocked to the sermons of the Dominican friars of the neighboring convent. It took until 1325 to finish it.
The facade is the main attraction. Leon Battista Alberti completed it in 1470 for the merchant Giovanni Rucellai, grafting it onto the 14th-century part: precisely calculated proportions, built from squares and simple ratios.
Rucellai could not resist signing it: his name is in the inscription under the pediment, and the sail swollen by the wind, the family's emblem, runs along a band of the frieze. The sun at the center of the pediment has been the district's coat of arms since 1343.
The two obelisks with the tortoises served for a race: the Palio dei Cocchi was run here, on the eve of St. John's Day, from 1563: four two-horse chariots, one per district, went three times around the posts, while the grand duke watched from the steps.
After the first wooden posts, the Seravezza marble obelisks, worked by Ammannati, were put in place in 1608, with Giambologna's tortoises. The last race was in 1852.
On the south side, the loggia of the Ospedale di San Paolo has a portico inspired by Brunelleschi's Innocenti, with glazed terracotta roundels by Andrea della Robbia. Above the portal of the hospital's church there is also a lunette by him showing the meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic.
To the left of the church you enter the Museo di Santa Maria Novella, with the Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel. On the other side, beside the facade, are the avelli, old burial niches that continue along Via degli Avelli.
Even the buildings on the slanted side have something to tell: Palazzo Pitti-Broccardi was Luca Pitti's home before he moved to the palace that bears his name. At number 8, the Albergo Roma has Art Deco stained glass by Tito Chini.
In the middle, on the glass bench, a phrase by Alberti is written: “The temple must pleasantly entertain the mind and fill it with joyful wonder.”
Don't miss
• Alberti's facade.
• The obelisks with the tortoises.
• The loggia of the Ospedale di San Paolo.
• The Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel.
Did you know?
• Over the museum's entrance lunette there was a fresco by Masaccio, now lost and known only from copies.
• The former Scuole Leopoldine, the old hospital, have housed the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia since 2006.
The square was opened by the city government starting in 1287, by tearing down houses, to make room for the crowds that flocked to the sermons of the Dominican friars of the neighboring convent. It took until 1325 to finish it.
The facade is the main attraction. Leon Battista Alberti completed it in 1470 for the merchant Giovanni Rucellai, grafting it onto the 14th-century part: precisely calculated proportions, built from squares and simple ratios.
Rucellai could not resist signing it: his name is in the inscription under the pediment, and the sail swollen by the wind, the family's emblem, runs along a band of the frieze. The sun at the center of the pediment has been the district's coat of arms since 1343.
The two obelisks with the tortoises served for a race: the Palio dei Cocchi was run here, on the eve of St. John's Day, from 1563: four two-horse chariots, one per district, went three times around the posts, while the grand duke watched from the steps.
After the first wooden posts, the Seravezza marble obelisks, worked by Ammannati, were put in place in 1608, with Giambologna's tortoises. The last race was in 1852.
On the south side, the loggia of the Ospedale di San Paolo has a portico inspired by Brunelleschi's Innocenti, with glazed terracotta roundels by Andrea della Robbia. Above the portal of the hospital's church there is also a lunette by him showing the meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic.
To the left of the church you enter the Museo di Santa Maria Novella, with the Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel. On the other side, beside the facade, are the avelli, old burial niches that continue along Via degli Avelli.
Even the buildings on the slanted side have something to tell: Palazzo Pitti-Broccardi was Luca Pitti's home before he moved to the palace that bears his name. At number 8, the Albergo Roma has Art Deco stained glass by Tito Chini.
In the middle, on the glass bench, a phrase by Alberti is written: “The temple must pleasantly entertain the mind and fill it with joyful wonder.”
Don't miss
• Alberti's facade.
• The obelisks with the tortoises.
• The loggia of the Ospedale di San Paolo.
• The Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel.
Did you know?
• Over the museum's entrance lunette there was a fresco by Masaccio, now lost and known only from copies.
• The former Scuole Leopoldine, the old hospital, have housed the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia since 2006.