S. Michele Arcangelo Visdomini

Beautiful church, with a spectacular Pontormo, and various decorations. Worth a visit.

Another jewel of Florence, this church houses masterpieces of the caliber of Pontormo ...

The current construction began in 1364 to replace an ancient church, the Celestine monks officiated it from 1552 to 1782, radically restructuring it. It conserves remarkable works of art from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inlaid furnishings come from the destroyed monastery of San Pier Maggiore. The restorations have brought to light fragments of fourteenth-century frescoes.

The current building was started in 1364 and replaced an ancient patronage church of the Visdomini family, demolished a year earlier to create more space for the new cathedral (it was located under the current north apsidal, behind the ancient church of Santa Reparata ). The first stone was laid in the presence of the bishop of Fiesole Andrea Corsini, later a saint, on land made available by the Del Palagio family. The interior has a single nave, with side altars, and a transept in which two chapels plus the central one open along the rear perate. The first altar on the right is decorated by the Nativity of Empoli (1618), followed by the Pucci altar with a Sacred Conversation by Pontormo dated 1518 and commissioned by Francesco Pucci. At the third altar the alms of St. Thomas Villanuova by Agostino Veracini. On the other side, the Madonna and Child with Saints by Poppi, the Preaching by Battista del Passignano, a work that reveals its strong Venetian influences, and the Immaculate Conception also by Poppi. At the head of the right transept the Birth of the Virgin by Agostino Ciampelli (1593) and the eighteenth-century altarpiece depicting the Victory of the Archangel Michael by Niccolò Lapi, copy by Guido Reni; The first chapel of the transept, to the right of the main one, has the remains of frescoes and sinopias referable to Spinello Aretino, while the left chapel preserves a fourteenth-century crucifix called dei Bianchi (from the name of a brotherhood of penitents to which it belonged), and remains of fourteenth century frescoes and sinopias. The main chapel does not have any particular elements. At the head of the left transept the Poppi Resurrection (1570).

Very pretty little church close to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore