Architecture,  Art,  Italy

The Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze

November 28, 2025 / 47 Comments

According to tradition, St Francis of Assisi’s first companions arrived in Florence as early as 1209. The city was growing, wool was being processed, exporting fabrics throughout Europe, and to meet the demand for labour, many farmers left the fields to move to settlements built outside the city walls. The friars of the new mendicant religious orders settled among these inhabitants. the Franciscans chose the north bank of the Arno, in a marshy area, often flooded by the river. In 1228, when Francis was proclaimed a saint two years after his death, the church of Santa Croce was mentioned for the first time.

Adapted from the basilica’s website

On our recent visit we stayed just around the corner from the Piazza di Santa Croce. It became the starting point for several of our walks and the focus of our evening drinking and dining. By day and night the huge basilica, the largest Franciscan church in the world, dominates its eastern side.

Basilica di Santa Croce by day

The Piazza and Basilica di Santa Croce by night

A (very) brief history

The friars’ early church was replaced by a second and then in the thirteenth century a third. This is the church we see here today, albeit much changed. Initially the church walls were decorated with frescoes to narrate the stories of the bible to those unable to read. These were whitewashed in a sixteenth century renovation initiated by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, along with other changes that removed clutter in line with the decorum and symmetry imposed by the Counter-Reformation. This followed the Council of Trent which aimed to revitalize and strengthen the Catholic Church against the challenges of Protestantism. The interior has undergone numerous further renovations over the centuries, most importantly to accommodate the funerary monuments of many notable Italians. As a result it is often known as the Tempio dell’Itale Glorie (Temple of Italian glories).

The façade was left unfinished until the mid-19th century. It was completed by the architect Niccolò Matas in the Neo-Gothic style in 1865.

Visiting the church

Entry to the basilica currently costs €10.00 and is worth it in my opinion as there is a lot to see inside. For an extra fee you can hire an audio guide, but we relied on the free leaflet with a detailed plan, plus the information in my guidebook.

Here are some of the highlights:

[I got a bit carried away when researching this post and went down several rabbit holes! Please feel free to ignore the text and just look at the photos!]

St Francis by Coppo di Marcovaldo, 1245-50

St Francis of Assisi is venerated in a number of the basilica’s works of art, unsurprisingly given that it is a Franciscan church. This is the Bardi Panel by Coppo di Marcovaldo, St. Francis and Twenty Stories from his Life.

This altarpiece is considered one of the most important painted works of the 13th century. It would normally sit on the altar in the Bardi Chapel, which is decorated with Giotto’s frescoes also telling the life of the saint. But that is under restoration so was screened off and this altarpiece displayed elsewhere in the church. There were information panels showing the hidden frescoes which can also be seen on the website: https://www.santacroceopera.it/en/catalogue-of-works/giotto-stories-of-st-francis/.

Cappella della Madre Italiana

This is one of the more modern works in the basilica, a Pieta by Libero Andreotti, dating to 1924. It was sculpted in Carrara marble and is placed in the Cappella della Madre Italiana (Chapel of the Italian Mother).

This chapel is dedicated to the sacrifices of mothers who lost sons in World War One.  The stained-glass window is by Ezio Giovannozzi and commemorates the main battle locations of the war.

The main altar

The main altar is surrounded by frescoes depicting the Legend of the True Cross by Agnolo Gaddi, a reflection of the church’s dedication to the Holy Cross, Santa Croce.

The altarpiece is a polyptych designed by architect Niccolò Matas in the 19th century and assembled using paintings attributable to Florentine Giotto-style artists. And the crucifix was painted in the mid-14th century by the Master of Figline and was hung here in the 1930s.

Annunciation of the Virgin by Donatello, 1433-1435

This relief depicting the Annunciation is by Donatello and dates from about 1433-1435. It is carved in stone with gold highlights, while above the panel are putti (a form of cherub) in terracotta and stucco. I liked a description I found on the basilica’s website:

the ‘Virgin […] frightened by the sudden appearance of the Angel, timidly but gently moves her body as if to flee” and the three lively pairs of cherubs “are afraid of the height, holding each other in their arms, and are reassured’.

Vasari, 1568

Machiavelli’s tomb

I was surprised to find Machiavelli buried in any church, let alone honoured with such an impressive tomb in one of the city’s major places of worship. Machiavelli is generally considered to have regarded religion as man-made. He was critical of Christianity, thinking that it encouraged people to leave events to providence rather than fight for what was needed. But the church’s website explains:

The remains of the great historian and man of letters Niccolò Machiavelli rested in the family chapel of the church of Santa Croce since 1527, the year of his death, in a burial ‘without any particular distinction’. His republican positions and opposition to tyranny that had marked the end of his political career had isolated him and made him unpopular with the Medici family … It wasn’t until the late eighteenth century that the time was ripe to create a monumental tomb worthy of the great writer and politician.

Galileo’s tomb

I was also somewhat surprised to find Galileo similarly honoured. Again the website explains:

‘Galileo’s body … was buried, almost secretly, in a small room near the Novitiate chapel after his death in 1642. The construction of a monument, desired and promoted by his faithful disciple Vincenzo Viviani, was immediately opposed by ecclesiastical circles, who deemed it inappropriate to celebrate the memory of a man suspected of heresy. It would take nearly a century for a funerary monument commemorating the great scientist to be erected.’

A number of artists were involved in the design of the monument. Astronomy, sculpted by Vincenzo Foggini, stands on the left, holding a parchment with sunspots. On the right is Geometry, by Girolamo Ticciati, displaying a table with the inclined plane and falling bodies. The bust of Galileo himself, the work of Giulio Foggini, shows him gazing heavenward. He is holding a telescope in his right hand and a celestial globe in his left, resting on some books and a compass. Below the bust is the planet Jupiter and its satellites, discovered by Galileo and called by him the ‘Medici planets’.

Michelangelo’s tomb

Michelangelo died in Rome and was initially buried in the church of Santi Apostoli there. However he had expressed a desire to be buried in Florence. So two weeks after his funeral his friends stole the body and moved it secretly to that city. From the church’s website again:

despite the desire to keep the event secret, news of his transfer to Santa Croce spread rapidly. The church was immediately so crowded that it was difficult to move his body to the sacristy, where it was laid out to allow homage to be paid to the great master, who had been away from the city for thirty years. The solemn funeral took place later in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, but Duke Cosimo insisted that he ‘be given an honoured place in Santa Croce for his burial, in which church he had intended to be buried during his lifetime because it was the burial place of his ancestors.’

As with Galileo’s monument this is the work of several artists. I was particularly taken by the central figure, Sculpture, by Valerio Cioli. On the left is Painting by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi and on the right Architecture by Giovanni Bandini.

Dante’s cenotaph or empty tomb

Unlike the other famous Italians commemorated here, Dante Alighieri was not buried in Santa Croce but in Ravenna where he died in exile in 1321. So this is described as a cenotaph rather than a tomb.

It was the work of Stefano Ricci and depicts Dante, dressed in classical robes and wearing a laurel wreath, seated in an elevated position with his arm resting on a book. The empty sarcophagus is flanked by two female figures. On the left is Italia, and on the right, Poetry. As with those to Machiavelli and Galileo, it was inaugurated centuries after Dante’s death, in 1830.

Crucifix by Cimabue, pre 1288

This crucifix, painted by Cimabue some time before 1288, is considered one of the symbolic works of Santa Croce and of the tragedy of the 1966 Florence flood. Having been submerged in the flood waters and covered in mud it underwent a lengthy restoration. Despite this, sixty percent of the painted surface was lost. Yet again I quote the church’s website:

Christ is depicted according to the Byzantine iconography of the Christus patiens, meaning ‘deceased,’ with the grieving Madonna and Saint John the Evangelist at his sides.

Descent of Christ into Limbo by Bronzino, 1552

Bronzino’s painting of Christ’s Descent into Limbo was originally painted for the chapel to the left of the main door of the church. It was praised upon its unveiling in July 1552. However it was later criticised due to the naked women in poses that were considered lascivious, as they lacked the decorum required by the Counter-Reformation. The painting was badly damaged in the 1966 flood. It was restored, and is now housed in the Medici Chapel and hung high enough to mitigate against further flooding.

Bronzino takes his subject from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. According to this Christ, before the Resurrection, would have brought from Limbo the righteous who had lived before his coming. At the top, terrifying devils peer down at the righteous below.

I lost patience waiting for the woman in my photo to get out of the way, though I couldn’t blame her for wanting to study the painting in depth. In the end I rather liked the way in which she provides some scale.

The Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari, 1546-47

Giorgio Vasari’s Last Supper was originally intended for the refectory of a cloistered Benedictine convent on Via Ghibellina. But with the suppression of religious orders in 1808-1810 the convent was closed and this work was transferred to Santa Croce and later to a museum which was established in the monastery’s former refectory. Here it became submerged in water and mud when the Arno flooded much of Florence on November 4, 1966.

It was eventually restored and returned to hang in the refectory but is now on a system of counterweights that allows for it to be quickly lifted to safety if a flood warning is received. Next to it you can see markers showing the height of previous floods, while a model in a glass case shows the mechanism in more detail. A video on the website shows this in action: https://www.santacroceopera.it/opere/vasari-ultima-cena/.

Tree of Life and The Last Supper by Taddeo Gaddi, c 1345-50

Also in the refectory, or Cenacle, is perhaps the most impressive artwork of all. Taddeo Gaddi’s fresco depicts the Last Supper with above it the Crucifixion. The cross is depicted as a ‘tree of life’ from which twelve boughs branch out into medallions. These feature figures of prophets holding scrolls which invite contemplation of Christ’s sacrifice.

Either side of the crucifixion scene are four more paintings. One is Saint Francis receiving the stigmata (top left), while the other three tell sacred stories related to food: Saint Louis of Toulouse serving the poor at table, An angel orders the priest to bring food to Saint Benedict in the hermitage and Jesus’ Supper in the Pharisee’s house. These reflect the room’s original use as a dining hall, where the friars ate in silence and were encouraged to meditate individually.

Finally, a few other pieces that caught my eye. Click on any of them to open a captioned slideshow (if you haven’t lost the will to live by now!)

I visited Florence in October/November 2025

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