Santa Croce cathedral in Florence
May 25, 2009
As I told you in my diary, this Church has 16 chapels, and it’s very vast; the name means The Holy Cross, and it is of the 13th cent. started my Arnolfo di Cambio, even of the legend wants St. Francis as its foundator. The façade is Gothic, like the Duomo, but it was rebuilt in the 19th cent.
The church worth a visit, and it’s located about 20 minutes walk from our bed&breakfasts MR My Resort and Relais Grand Tour. In addiction the area is full of good places to eat and leather shops.
The Santa Croce cathedral is famous also for its funerary monuments, but you can’t skip the frescoes of Giotto and pupils (frescoes in Cappella Pazzi and Cappella Bardi), the decorations of Andrea della Robbia, works of Donatello, Cimabue, Vasari…
And here you can stay in front of our Renaissance celebrities… well, I mean in front of their skeletons.
The tomb of Michelangelo is located on the right at the front of the basilica, and he choosed this spot personally. Vasari in person worked on this monument, he was his friend and follower.
Then you can admire the tomb of Vittorio Alfieri (poet and dramatist) by Antonio Canova, and the tomb of Niccolò Machiavelli, with the allegorical figure of Diplomacy.
Ugo Foscolo, another important italian poet (I sepolcri - The tombs, where he celebrated the funeral monuments of the powerful right in this church, and the values of compassion and remembrance), is here.
The tomb of Galileo Galilei is on the left wall, made in polychrome marbels; his bust is between the Astronomy and Geometry allegories.
You can’t miss the Cloister and the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Croce.
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Santa Croce is one of the places I LOVE MOST in Florence!
Hi Nelli
thanks for your comment!