Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze
|
Facade of Basilica di Santa Croce |
The
Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal
Franciscan church of
Florence,
Italy, and a minor
basilica of the
Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza Santa Croce, to the east of the
Duomo.
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Cappella Pazzi & First Cloister |
Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by
St Francis himself. The current church was probably begun in 1294, possibly by
Arnolfo di Cambio, and paid for by some of the city's wealthiest families. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV. The church is vast. Its most notable features are its sixteen
chapels, many of them decorated with
frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its
funerary monuments. In 1560, the choir screen was removed and the interior rebuilt by
Giorgio Vasari, who damaged the church's decoration in the process. The
neo-Gothic facade only dates from 1857-1863. The
campanile was built in 1842.
In the Primo Chiostro, the main
cloister, is the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the
chapter house by
Filippo Brunelleschi between 1442 and 1446 and finally completed in the 1470s. The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce is housed mainly in the
refectory, also off the cloister. A monument to
Florence Nightingale stands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi also built the inner cloister, completed in 1453.
Today the former dormitory of the Franciscan Friars houses the Scuola del Cuoio (Leather School)[
1]. Visitors can watch as artisans craft purses, wallets, and other leather goods which are sold in the adjacent shop.
Artists whose work is present in the church include:
*
Benedetto da Maiano (pulpit; doors to Cappella dei Pazzi, with his brother
Giuliano)
*
Antonio Canova (Alfieri's monument)
*
Cimabue (
Crucifixion, badly damaged by the 1966 flood and now in the refectory)
*
Andrea della Robbia (altarpiece in Cappella Medici)
*
Luca della Robbia (decoration of Cappella dei Pazzi)
*
Desiderio da Settignano (Marsuppini's tomb; frieze in Cappella dei Pazzi)
*
Donatello (relief of the
Annunciation on the south wall; crucifix in the lefthand Cappella Bardi;
St Louis of Toulouse in the refectory, originally made for the
Orsanmichele)
*
Agnolo Gaddi (frescoes in Cappella Castellani and chancel; stained glass in chancel)
*
Taddeo Gaddi (frescoes in Cappella Baroncelli;
Crucifixion in the sacristy;
Last Supper in the refectory, considered his best work)
*
Giotto (frescoes in Cappella Peruzzi and righthand Cappella Bardi; possibly
Coronation of the Virgin, altarpiece in Cappella Baroncelli)
*
Giovanni da Milano (frescoes in Cappella Rinuccini)
*
Masso di Banco (frescoes in Cappella Bardi di Vernio)
*
Henry Moore (statue of a warrior in the Primo Chiostro)
*
Andrea Orcagna (frescoes largely disappeared during Vasari's remodelling, but some fragments remain in the refectory)
*
Antonio Rossellino (relief of the
Madonna del Latte in the south aisle)
*
Bernardo Rossellino (Bruni's tomb)
*
Santi di Tito (
Supper at Emmaus and
Resurrection, altarpieces in the north aisle)
* Giorgio Vasari (Michelangelo's tomb)
*
Domenico Veneziano (
SS John and Francis in the refectory)
Monuments in the church include those to:
*
Leon Battista Alberti (15th century architect and artistic theorist)
*
Vittorio Alfieri (18th century poet and dramatist)
*
Eugenio Barsanti (co-inventor of the
internal combustion engine)
*
Lorenzo Bartolini (19th century sculptor)
*
Charlotte Bonaparte (daughter of
Joseph Bonaparte)
*
Leonardo Bruni (15th century chancellor of the Republic, scholar and historian)
*
Dante (actually buried in
Ravenna)
*
Ugo Foscolo (19th century poet)
*
Galileo*
Giovanni Gentile (20th century philosopher)
*
Lorenzo Ghiberti*
Vittorio Ghiberti*
Niccolò Machiavelli*
Carlo Marsuppini (15th century chancellor of the Republic)
*
Michelangelo Buonarroti*
Raffaello Morgheni (19th century engraver)
*
Gioacchino Rossini*
Louise of Stolberg-Gedern (wife of
Charles Edward Stuart)
*
Satellite image from Google Maps*
Basilica di Santa Croce - Minosh Photography*
Cappella dei Pazzi - Minosh Photography
