Google
Web www.paradisepath.com
 
 
Home | USA | Europe | Bahamas | Caribbean | South America | India | South Africa | Contact

 The Basilica di Santa Croce  
(Basilica of the Holy Cross)
is the principal Franciscan church of Florence, Italy, and a
minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church

 

The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church of Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza Santa Croce, to the east of the Duomo.

Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself. The current church was probably begun in 1294, possibly by Arnolfo di Cambio, and paid for by some of the city's wealthiest families. In 1439, the Council of Florence, designed to heal the schism between Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, was held at Santa Croce.

The church is vast. Its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, and its funerary monuments. In 1560, the choir screen was removed and the interior rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari, who damaged the church's decoration in the process. The neo-Gothic facade only dates from 1857-1863. The campanile was built in 1842.

 

In the Primo Chiostro, the main cloister, is the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the chapter house by Filippo Brunelleschi between 1442 and 1446 and finally completed in the 1470s. The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce is housed mainly in the refectory, also off the cloister. A monument to Florence Nightingale stands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi also built the inner cloister, completed in 1453.

Italy
guide, hotels, airfares

Google maps
 

 

 Florence

Ponte Vecchio
Chiesa di San Felice
Boboli Gardens
Uffizi Gallery
Abadia Florentina
Basilica della Santissima Annunziata
Basilica di San Lorenzo
Basilica di San Miniato
Basilica di Santa Croce
Battisteria di San Giovanni
Chiesa di Santa Felicita
Chiesa di Santa Margherita
Santa Maria del Fiore

Milan

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
La Scala

Rome

Villa Borghese
Quirinale
Tiber River
Fontana di Trevi

Venice

Venice Film Festival
Basilica di San Marco
Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo
Basilica di Santa Maria GLoriosa dei Frairi
Piazza di San Marco

 
 


Stop Pop-ups, Surf related links, get site info, traffic rank and more...Download Alexa toolbar