Chiesa di Santa Croce
Giotto Frescoes in the Bardi Chapel (c. 1325)
Gaddi Frescoes in the Baroncelli Chapel (c. 1328-1338)
Leather School (Scuola del Cuoio)
Santa Croce, one of Florence’s biggest and oldest churches, gives us a glimpse into the medieval roots of the Renaissance. The church was the centerpiece of a monastery for Franciscans, and was built by Arnolfo di Cambio, who also designed the Duomo, and frescoed by Giotto, the proto-Renaissance pioneer.
In the cloisters is a small chapel that some consider the finest example of early-Renaissance architecture. The church was host to many famous Florentines, including Michelangelo and Galileo, who are both buried here. Today, the church complex houses a leather school, a display on the disastrous 1966 flood, and a museum housed in the monks’ former dining hall.
(See “Heart of Florence” map, here.)
Cost: €6 (or €8.50 combo-ticket with nearby Casa Buonarroti), includes the church, Pazzi Chapel, and museum; covered by Firenze Card. The leather school is always free.
Hours: Church—Mon-Sat 9:30-17:30, Sun 14:00-17:30, last entry 30 minutes before closing. Leather school—daily 10:00-18:00, closed Sun in fall/winter.
Crowd-Beating Tips: A limited number of people are allowed to enter at one time, sometimes resulting in waits of up to 40 minutes in summer. Firenze Card holders have a priority line. Otherwise, go early or late in the day, or use the...
Back Door Entrance: The leather school, tucked in the back of the church, is never crowded, and also sells entrance tickets to the church, letting you skip the line. To find the school, walk west along the left side of the church, and enter the doorway at Via San Giuseppe 5 red (labeled Leather School of Florence). Follow Scuola del Cuoio signs through the small garden and humble parking lot to the low-key back entrance of the school. Don’t be shy—they want you to visit their store. Once inside, pass through the workshops and displays to the room with the cash register, and tell the cashier you want a church ticket. With your ticket in hand, go down the hallway that leads into the church. You’ll find yourself at 
on the Santa Croce map (see next page). Find your way to the nave to start this tour.
Dress Code: A modest dress code (no short shorts or bare shoulders) is enforced. A vending machine at the entrance dispenses disposable ponchos for €0.50.
Getting There: It’s a 10-minute walk east of the Palazzo Vecchio along the street called Borgo de’ Greci.
Information: Tel. 055-246-6105, www.santacroceopera.it. The leather school has its own website (www.scuoladelcuoio.com).
Audioguide: €5 (€8/2 people).
Length of This Tour: Allow one hour. With less time, focus on the tombs of VIFs (Very Important Florentines) and the Giotto frescoes.
Photography: Permitted in most areas, without flash.
Eating: Recommended eateries are nearby (see here).
Starring: Tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo, Giotto’s frescoes, St. Francis’ robe, and Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel.
(See “Santa Croce” map, here.)
• Begin on the square in front of the church.
Santa Croce Church was built from 1294 to 1442. Architect Arnolfo di Cambio’s design was so impressive, the city also hired him to do the Duomo and the Palazzo Vecchio.
The church’s colorful marble facade, left unfinished for centuries, was finally added in the 1850s. A statue of the medieval poet Dante adorns the church steps.
The church presides over a vast square ringed with a few old palazzos, notably the late-Renaissance building at the far end. Piazza Santa Croce has always been one of Florence’s gathering spots, for Carnival, May Day, and community events. If you’re here in the third week of June, the square is covered with dirt and surrounded by bleachers for the annual soccer/rugby match, which since 1530 has pitted neighborhood against neighborhood.
If you were here on November 4, 1966, you would have found the square covered with 15 feet of water. The Arno flooded that day, submerging the church steps and rising halfway up the central doorway. (More on the flood later.)
• Buy your ticket and enter. Start at the far end of the nave (farthest from the altar). Face the altar and gaze down the long nave.
The effect here is one of great spaciousness. The nave is 375 feet long, lined with columns that are tall, slender, and spaced far apart, supporting wide, airy arches. As in most Gothic churches, there’s no attempt to hide the structural skeleton of columns and pointed arches. Instead, they’re the stars of this show, demonstrating the mathematical perfection of the design and the builders’ technical prowess.
Hundreds of people are buried in the Santa Croce complex, including 276 of them under your feet, marked by plaques in the floor. More famous folk line the walls.
• Nearby, find the tombs of two particularly well-known people.
On the left wall (as you face the altar) is the tomb of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the Pisan who lived his last years under house arrest near Florence. His crime? Defying the Church by saying that the earth revolved around the sun. His heretical remains were only allowed in the church long after his death. (For more on Galileo, see his relics in the Galileo Science Museum.)
Directly opposite (on the right wall) is the tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Santa Croce was Michelangelo’s childhood church, as he grew up a block west of here at Via dei Bentaccordi 15 (where nothing but a plaque marks the spot). He took Florentine culture and spread it across Europe. In his later years, Michelangelo envisioned that his tomb would be marked with a pietà he carved himself. (Left unfinished, it’s now in the Duomo Museum.) The garish tomb he actually got—with the allegorical figures of painting, architecture, and sculpture—was designed by Michelangelo’s great admirer, the artist/biographer Giorgio Vasari. Vasari also did the series of paintings that line the left side of the nave, using the twisting poses and bulky muscles that Michelangelo pioneered.
• Stroll up the nave, finding more tombs and monuments along the right wall.
At the memorial to the poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), there’s no body inside, since Dante was banished by his hometown because of his politics and was buried in Ravenna. Exiled Dante looks weary, the Muse of Poetry mourns, and Lady Florence gestures to say, “Look what we missed out on.”
Two tombs ahead, the tomb of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) features Lady Justice presenting a medallion with his portrait on it. Machiavelli, a champion of democratic Florence, opposed the Medici as tyrants. When they returned to power, he was arrested and tortured. He retired to his farm to write The Prince, a how-to manual on hardball politics.
A few steps farther along, Donatello’s carved gray-and-gold relief (1430-1435) depicting the Annunciation shows a kneeling angel gently breaking the news to an astonished Mary. Notable for its then-unprecedented realism, the wispy Mary (on the right) is considered one of the artistic breakthroughs that marked the beginning of the long-overdue Renaissance.
Two tombs up is Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), the Italian composer of many operas and the William Tell Overture (a.k.a. the Lone Ranger theme). Rossini died in Paris, but his body was later moved here, to his homeland, during a wave of Italian nationalism in the late 19th century.
• Head for the main altar. In the first chapel to the right of the altar are the...
The left wall has the famous Death of St. Francis. With simple but eloquent gestures, Francis’ brothers bid him a sad farewell. One folds his hands and stares longingly at Francis’ serene face. Another bends to kiss Francis’ hand, while others raise their arms in grief. It’s one of the first expressions of human emotion in modern painting. It’s also one of the first to create a real three-dimensional grouping of figures. Giotto places three kneeling men (with their backs to us) in the foreground, puts some others standing behind Francis, and turns the rest to profile.
Giotto and his army of assistants were hired to plaster much of the church in colorful frescoes. But over the years, most were chiseled off, replaced by more modern works (like Vasari’s). This chapel was only whitewashed over, and the groundbreaking frescoes were rediscovered in the 19th century.
• Facing the altar, turn right, and head into the right (south) transept. At the far end, enter the chapel decorated with colorful frescoes.
After assisting Giotto in the Bardi Chapel, Taddeo Gaddi (1300-1366)—Giotto’s beloved godson—was charged with painting this chapel. His lively frescoes cover both the wall to the left (as you enter), and the wall straight ahead (with stained-glass windows by Gaddi and an altar by Giotto).
Start with the wall to the left. The story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, unfolds from top to bottom, left to right. At the very top (under the pointed arch), is a temple scene. Mary’s future dad, Joachim (with a beard and a halo), is turned away from the temple because he’s childless. Ashamed, he retreats to the wilderness (right side), where an angel promises him a daughter. Overjoyed, Joachim rushes to his wife, Anna, and they embrace (next level down, left panel). Anna soon gives birth to baby Mary (badly damaged panel, right side). Still a child, Mary climbs the steps of the temple (bottom level, left panel; most of her body is missing from peeling plaster) to the chief priest (cone-shaped hat), who would raise her. When it comes time for Mary to marry, the priest assembles all the eligible bachelors (bottom-right panel). Joseph’s staff sprouts leaves and a dove (center of scene, to left of priest), signaling that he is chosen. In the foreground, a sore loser bends over and breaks his own staff.
Mary’s life continues on the altar/stained-glass wall. At the top left, an angel swoops down to tell Mary that she’ll give birth to Jesus. Perhaps Gaddi’s most impressive scene is just below: A sleeping shepherd is awakened by an angel, who announces that Christ is born. Gaddi, an early pioneer in lighting effects, placed these windows where the natural light coming through would mix with the supernatural light from the radiant angel. (It’s said that Gaddi studied solar eclipses to the point of near-blindness.) Finally, Mary’s story comes to its culmination (right of window): She gives birth to the Son of God in a stable.
• Exiting the chapel, immediately do a U-turn right, into a long hallway. Enter the first door on the left to reach the sacristy.
In a glass case along the wall, find a bit of St. Francis’ tunic (Parte della Tonaca, scrunched up in a small gold frame). Francis (c. 1182-1226), a monk from nearby Assisi, caused a stir by challenging the decadence of Church government and society in general. Adopting the poor, wandering lifestyle of Jesus Christ, he preached a message of non-materialism and love. His charismatic presence and stirring sermons attracted many followers, including the monks who founded Santa Croce. Francis’ humanistic outlook and appreciation for the beauty of nature helped sow the seeds that would bloom into the Florentine Renaissance. Also displayed is a Papal Bull (Regula Ordinis), which finally legitimized the once-controversial Franciscan movement.
• The sacristy leads into the bookstore, which leads to the...
After World War II, the Franciscan monks created a “Boys Town” here to give war orphans a trade: making leather products. It was the first shop of what is now a popular leather district. The Gori family of merchants helped found the school and the grandson still runs it today. Wander through the former dorms for monks, watch the leatherworking in action, and browse the finished products—for sale, of course. Angled mirrors let you look over the shoulders of the busy leatherworkers. At the start of the long hallway, see the photos of visiting celebrities, from Jimmy Stewart to “Miss” Barbara Bush to Robert Downey, Jr.
• Backtrack through the bookstore, which spills out into a hallway that features a display on...
Located close to the Arno, Santa Croce was especially hard-hit by the devastating flood of November 1966. Water spilled into the church complex (including the museum/refectory we’ll see later), carrying off furnishings and artwork, and leaving several feet of mud in its wake. Cimabue’s famous Crucifixion was badly damaged, but survived (you’ll see it in the refectory—described later).
• Return to the nave and exit between the Rossini and Machiavelli tombs into the delightful cloister (open-air courtyard). Descend the stairs and take the second left into the...
Begun in 1430 by Brunelleschi, this small chapel captures the Renaissance in miniature. As with his Duomo dome, Brunelleschi was inspired by Rome’s ancient Pantheon. The circle-in-square design reflects the ancient Romans’ (and Renaissance Florentines’) belief in the unity and harmony of perfect shapes. Notice how the color scheme of white plaster and gray sandstone accentuates the architectural lines, so that only a little decoration is needed. The creamy colors help diffuse the light from the dome’s windows, making the chapel evenly lit and meditative. The four medallions showing the evangelists (at the base of the dome) may be by Donatello; the medallions of apostles (on the walls) are by Luca della Robbia. While originally used as a monk’s assembly room (chapter house), this later became the Pazzi family’s private chapel. Imagine how modern this chapel must have seemed after Brunelleschi capped it with a dome.
• Exiting into the courtyard, notice the long building on the right that houses the Romantic Graves Gallery (19th-century headstones), which is also included in your church admission. On the left is the entrance to the...
Summer visitors to Florence gaze at the lazy green creek called the Arno River and have a tough time imagining it being a destructive giant. But rare, powerful flooding is a part of life in this city. The Arno River washed away Ponte Vecchio in 1177 and 1333. And on November 4, 1966, a huge rainstorm turned the Arno into a wall of water, inundating the city with mud stacked as high as 20 feet. Nearly 14,000 families were left homeless, and tens of thousands of important frescoes, paintings, sculptures, and books were destroyed or damaged.
Almost as impressive as the flood was the huge outpouring of support, as the art-loving world came to the city’s rescue. While money poured in from far and wide, volunteers, nicknamed “mud angels,” mopped things up. After the flood, scientists made great gains in restoration techniques as they cleaned and repaired masterpieces from medieval and Renaissance times. Cimabue’s Crucifixion, now displayed in Santa Croce’s Refectory, is a prime example.
You’ll see plaques around town showing the high-water marks from 1966 (about six feet high at the Duomo). Now that a dam has tamed the Arno, kayakers glide peacefully on the river, sightseers enjoy the great art with no thought of a flood, and locals...still get nervous after every heavy rain.
Stroll through several rooms of paintings, statues, medieval altarpieces, and frescoes, until you come out into the large room that was originally the monks’ refectory, or dining hall, under heavy timber beams.
Cimabue’s Crucifixion (1423) was heavily damaged in the 1966 flood, and most of Christ’s face and body were washed away. Rescued and restored (as best they could), it became a symbol of the flood’s destruction and the international community’s efforts to rebuild the historic city.
The refectory’s entire far wall is frescoed with the impressive, 1,300-square-foot Tree of the Cross and Last Supper, by Taddeo Gaddi. A crucifix sprouts branches blossoming with medieval symbolism, which dining monks ate up. Francis kneels at the base of the cross and makes sympathetic eye contact with Jesus. In one of the scenes that flank the cross (upper left), Francis has a vision in which he receives the stigmata—the same wounds in his hands, feet, and side that Christ suffered when he was crucified. Beneath the Tree of the Cross is the Last Supper, a scene that gave the monastery’s residents the illusion that they were eating in the symbolic company of Jesus and the apostles.