Basilica Santa Maria Novella

It is situated in Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, one of the largest square of Florence’s historical centre.
The impressing square has been since the middle ages a popular site where traditional events like tourneys, masquerades and other public rejoicings were held.
At the very beginning of the 17th century, the square was especially enlarged to hold the annual carriage race known as the “Palio dei Cocchi”, as mentioned in the two marble obelisks located in the Piazza created by Giambologna (Italian name of the Flemish mannerist artist Jean de Boulogne).  The “Palio dei Cocchi” was there held until the second half of the 19th century.
Moreover than the Basilica, the square hosts other splendid structures like the beautiful portico of the “Ospedale di San Paolo” and the “Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella” which was the former Dominican laboratory where the monks distilled medicinal herbs and plants to made the pharmaceutical products intended for the adjacent Hospital.
At the present, it is a fine perfume shop where visitors can purchase toiletries in Neogothic scenery.  
The Piazza is located to the south of the “Stazione di Santa Maria Novella”, which is the main railway station of Florence.

Around 1219, Santo Domingo de Guzmán - who was born in Caleruega, Spain, in 1170, founded the Dominican Order in 1217 and died in Bologna in 1221 - sent to Florence in his name and representation a delegation composed by Fra Giovanni da Salerno (later beatify as Beato Giovanni) and other twelve Dominican monks from Bologna, in order to obtain a religious site to establish the Florentine seat of the Order.
Santo Domingo was sanctified by the Pope Gregorio IX in 1234.
So the former Oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne, which in that age was located outside Florence’s walls, was granted to the Dominican Order. The Oratory had been built in the 9th century on commission of the Tornaquinci family.

The construction of the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, on the same ground where the ancient Oratory was once erected, started in the second half of the 13th century. It was projected by two Dominican monks, Fra Sisto da Firenze and Fra Ristoro da Campi. The ground plan was shaped by a Latin cross divided into a central nave with two aisles by multiple pillars with pointed arches. The work which was conducted by the well-known Dominican architect Fra Jacopo Talenti di Nipozzano (1310ca. -1362) was terminated around 1360, complemented by a high bell tower in Romanesque-Gothic style and the Sacristy, but the Gothic façade - which construction started in 1300 - remained unfinished, except the Romanesque lower part which was covered with white and green marbles.
The huge Basilica was the first one constructed in Florence. It was consecrated in 1420 and in 1439 was held the Church Council of Florence. 

The façade was completed, between 1456 and1470, by the famous architect Leone Battista Alberti (1404-1472).The façade, considered a proto-Renaissance masterpiece, is covered by coloured marbles. The upper part of the magnificent portal is covered by white and black marbles, articulated in inlaid squares and skirted with the heraldic emblems of the Ruccellai family, who donated the construction of the façade. Two big reversed volutes bind the lateral bulks as well as those located in the centre, articulated by four white and green columns with Corinthian capitals, terminating in a triangular pediment with the Dominican solar emblem. The round stained glass window, representing “L’Inconorazione di Maria”, was carried out based on a drawing by Andrea di Bonaiuto (14th century).
In 1567 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de Medici, commissioned to the illustrious artist Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) the first remodelling of the Basilica. In 1858 the second remodelling was projected by the architect Enrico Romoli. The work went on for two years.

The central nave of the Basilica is 100 metres long and it is characterized by its Gothic austerity. Looking towards the apse the nave looks longer than it is due to the trompe l’oeil effect. The vaulted ceiling consists of pointed arches with its four diagonal stumps coloured in black and white.

The Basilica hosts many art works from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The main works are: the wonderful stained glass windows based on drawings by Filipppino Lippi (15th century); the sepulchre of the Patriarch of Constantinople who died in Florence; the sepulchre known as the “Tomba della Beata Villana” by Bernardo Rosellino (1451); the sepulchre of Lionardo Dati by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1425); the sepulchre of  the Bishop of Fiesole and the bust of  S.Antonino by Tino da Camaino (1285 -1335); the Pulpit, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1443) and carried out by his pupil Andrea Cavalvanti; the bronze “Crucifix” on the main Altar created in the16th century by Giambologna (Italian name of the Flemish Jean de Boulougne) and the outstanding fresco representing “La Trinità” which is a masterpiece of Massaccio (1428).

For information about the three cloisters and nine private chapels click here .

West Side of Florence

The Cathedrals : Basilica di Santa Maria Novella , Chiesa Santa Trinitá , Chiesa Ognissanti

Main Monuments :Piazza della Repubblica

Main Streets : Via Tornabuoni , Parco delle Cascine

Main Museums : Museo Marino Marini

Click here for compleate Florence Travel Guide

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