BASILICA SANTA CROCE

The Basilica of Santa Croce (Holy Cross), or the Florentine Pantheon, is home to great geniuses. Michelangelo, Galileo, Alfieri, Machiavelli and Rossini are buried here. This important example of Gothic art is decorated with frescoes by Giotto (in the Bardi Chapel, closed for renovation until 2025) and those of his successors. The Renaissance sculptures attributed to Donatello, Rossellino and Desiderio make the atmosphere unique. Today it is still the largest Franciscan church in the world. It was financed by the Florentine Republic and its subjects and its construction began in 1294 on the plans of Arnolfo di Cambio, based on the foundations of a previous church dating from 1252, built after the death of St. Francis outside the city walls. The remains of the old building were only located in 1966 when, following the floods that devastated the city, part of the floor of the current church collapsed.

From the beginning, the history of Santa Croce has been intimately linked to the history of Florence. In the seven centuries since its foundation, it has been constantly remodeled, acquiring new symbolic connotations along the way. The changes were legion: from its primary nature as a Franciscan church to the role of a religious municipality for the great families and corporations of Medici Florence, from a humanist and Renaissance artistic workshop to a theological center, from a Pantheon to a place of reference in the nineteenth century for the political history of pre- and post-unity Italy.

Pantheon of Florentine geniuses, Santa Croce is also a prestigious symbol of the city. The basilica was a privileged meeting place for artists, theologians, religious, literary and political figures, as well as all the powerful families of the city; it played a particular role in the creation of the identity of late medieval and Renaissance Florence. Its convent offered hospitality to famous people: St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernardine of Siena and St. Louis of Anjou, bishop of Toulouse. With its imposing Gothic architecture, impressive frescoes, altarpieces, precious stained glass windows and numerous sculptures, the Basilica is an immutable representative of the history of Florentine art since the 13th century.

In the museum, , you can admire the Crucifixion by Cimabue, works by Donatello and Taddeo Gaddi, and a fresco by Orcagna representing the Triumph of Death.