CHURCHES IN FLORENCE
2 Santa Maria Novella
Piazza S Maria Novella • Open 10am–5pm Mon, Fri–Sat (from 1pm Sun & hols) • Adm
Among the many masterpieces in this beautiful church are Trinità (1428) by Masaccio, which had the first use of Renaissance perspective in a painting, the extraordinary, and particularly realistic, Crucifix by Giotto, Cappella Strozzi frescoes (1486) by Filippino Lippi and the colourful sanctuary frescoes (1485) by Ghirlandaio. The greenish Noah frescoes (1446) are warped perspectives by Paolo Uccello.
3 Santa Croce
Behind the striking marble façade of Florence's “Westminster Abbey” is a Gothic pantheon of cultural heroes that contains the tombs (see Santa Croce) of well-known figures such as Machiavelli, Rossini and Galileo (reburied here in 1737). Giotto frescoed the two chapels sited to the right of the altar.
Galileo’s tomb in Santa Croce
4 San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels
Piazza di S Lorenzo • Basilica: open 10am–5:30pm Mon–Sat; Medici Chapel: open 8:45am–1:30pm Sat–Mon, 2–6:30pm Wed–Fri • Adm
This was the Medici parish church. The family’s tombs are decorated by Rosso Fiorentino, Donatello, Bronzino and Filippo Lippi, with architecture by Brunelleschi (interior and Old Sacristy) and Michelangelo (Laurentian Library and New Sacristy). The New Sacristy also contains Michelangelo’s roughly finished Dawn, Dusk, Day and Night.
The interior of San Lorenzo
5 Santo Spirito
Piazza S Spirito • Open 10am–1pm & 3–6pm Mon–Sat, 11:30am–1:30pm & 3–6pm Sun & hols
The proportions of Brunelleschi’s Renaissance masterpiece are picked out in clean lines of pietra serena stone against white plaster. See the altarpieces by Filippino Lippi (Madonna and Child with Saints, 1466) and Verrocchio (St Monica and Augustinian Nuns).
6 San Miniato al Monte
Via Monte alle Croci • Open 9:30am–1pm & 3–7pm Mon–Sat, 8am–7pm Sun
Perched high above the city, this is Florence’s only Romanesque church. The doors of Michelozzo’s tabernacle were painted by Agnolo Gaddi (1394–6), one of the last Florentine artists stylistically descended from Giotto.
The church of San Miniato al Monte
7 Santa Maria del Carmine
Piazza del Carmine • Open 10am–5pm Mon, Fri–Sat (from 1pm Sun & hols) • Adm for Brancacci Chapel; advance booking for church (055 276 8224)
Masolino started the Brancacci Chapel’s frescoes of St Peter’s life in 1424. Another of his works, Adam and Eve, is rather sweet compared to the powerful Expulsion from the Garden by his successor, Masaccio. Filippino Lippi completed the cycle in 1485.
8 Santa Trinita
Piazza S Trinita • Open 7am–noon & 4–7pm daily
Florentine artist and architect Buontalenti provided the Mannerist façade, while the artist Ghirlandaio frescoed the Cappella Sasetti with the Life of St Francis set in 15th-century Florence.
9 Orsanmichele
Via dell’Arte della Lana • Open Sat
This granary-turned-church, once used by the city’s trade guilds, is ringed with statues by Donatello, Ghiberti and Verrocchio (all copies; the originals are in the museum upstairs). Orcagna designed the tabernacle to resemble a cathedral and it contains Madonna and Child with Angels, a 1348 work by Daddi.
Statue of St George, Orsanmichele
10 Santissima Annunziata
Piazza SS Annunziata • Open 7:30am–12:30pm & 4–6:30pm daily
The Michelozzo-designed entry cloister was frescoed by Mannerists Andrea del Sarto, Rosso and Pontormo. The octagonal Baroque tribune is decorated with Perugino’s Madonna and Saints and Bronzino’s Resurrection. In the back chapel, sculptures by Giambologna himself adorn his tomb.
