Convento di Santa Croce

Beautiful altar and rich history that are worth the visit.

The best basilica in Florence. Almost everything is open there, including the school to manufacture. Very good. Solid story

The convent is accessible only to religious and their guests. To access it, you need to make an appointment well in advance. Likewise, I suggest booking in case religious services are needed or accessing the library. Since it is not a parish, many rites cannot be celebrated (weddings, baptisms and the like) Not to be confused with the museum and the church of Santa Croce.

In the context of the convent of Santa Croce, the Last Supper or Refectory with the wonderful fresco by Taddeo Gaddi is absolutely worth visiting. this beautiful room also damaged by the flood but now returned to new splendor. Coming to Florence and not seeing this Last Supper would be a real shame !!!

Perhaps not everyone knows that during the transfer of the capital to Florence in 1864, the Convent of Santa Croce was occupied by government offices, in particular the rooms around the Cloister known as "del Brunelleschi" (or the Great Cloister) which still does not they belong more to the Convent but are an integral part (ie transformed) of the National Central Library of Florence. Of the ancient convent, the exteriors of the ground floor of the Great Cloister can be visited and, partially, the internal area that separates this cloister from the Pazzi Chapel. Here, on the first floor, there is the Library of Santa Croce, or of the Convent, (formerly of the Theological Study for the laity) which welcomes researchers by appointment; on the ground floor there are the Franciscan Editions Città di Vita and the permanent exhibition Museum Pietro Parigi (1892-1990), an illustrious xylographer and illustrator of our literary twentieth century, established in 1980 on the initiative of the Franciscans. The ground floor, where there is also the ancient cloister and the shrine of the Florentine fallen during the Great War, is part of the museum itinerary (contact the Opera di Santa Croce) with the exception of the 'new' refectory of the friars, a small conference room , the City of Life Editions.

The church of Santa Croce is the "temple of the glories of the soul" as Foscolo said, as it contains geniuses such as Galileo, Michelangelo, Foscolo himself, Alfieri, Machiavelli, Rossini and Leon Battista Alberti and is one of the most beautiful examples of Italian Gothic. The construction of the building began at the end of the 1200s where a small church was not sufficient to welcome the faithful and Arnolfo di Cambio worked on it, but its façade remained unfinished until the mid-nineteenth century when it was decided to complete it with a project that it was inspired by the Florentine Gothic style. The Church has always been entrusted to the Franciscans who built their monastery here and, like most of the convent buildings, it has a cross-shaped plan (T) with the interior divided into three naves. At the bottom appears in all its splendor the Cappella Maggiore, in French Gothic style, completely frescoed by Agnolo Gaddi, but it is the side chapels and burials that attract the most attention. On the right are the Peruzzi Chapel and the Bardi Chapel, both frescoed by Giotto with the Stories of San Giovanni and San Francesco, followed by others with the tombs of Giulia and Charlotte Bonaparte, the Riccardi chapel with three paintings from the end of the 1500s and fourteenth-century frescoes by an unknown author. At the head of the right transept there are the Baroncelli Chapel and the Castellani decorated by Taddeo Gaddi and his son Agnolo. On the left side of the church are the frescoes by Bartolomeo Daddi in the Pulci-Berardi Chapel and the crucifix by Donatello in the Bardi Chapel of Vernio. Along both aisles there are also the burials of the characters who distinguished themselves in art, music and literature and since the church assumed in the nineteenth century assumed the role of a true pantheon there are innumerable plaques in memory, including the cenotaph of Dante. From the Church one can then access the Medici Chapel and from there to the Sacristy, splendidly frescoed. The cloisters can also be visited, one by Arnolfo di Cambio and the other by Brunelleschi and the Cappella de 'Pazzi, designed by Brunelleschi and decorated by Luca della Robbia and Giuliano da Maiano, but left unfinished after the famous conspiracy that saw the death of Giuliano de 'Medici. Below the transept there are the underground areas where the remains of those who were buried in the church and the fallen Florentine of the First World War are collected. The museum of the Opera, frescoed by Taddeo Gaddi is found instead in what was the refectory and it is possible to admire among other works a precious crucifix by Cimabue and the bronze of San Ludovico di Donatello.