Santa Croce, Florence

Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan basilica in Florence and a major ecclesiastical and artistic site founded in the late 13th century. It is notable for its large Gothic interior, chapels with important frescoes and the burial monuments of several prominent Italian personalities.

Highlights inside the complex include chapels decorated with frescoes by artists of the Giotto school, a Brunelleschian chapel, and a series of monumental tombs that have made the basilica a place of national and cultural memory. Cloisters and ancillary buildings host workshops and visitor facilities.

Construction began in the late 1200s under the Franciscan order and the church developed architecturally over the 14th and 15th centuries with later additions and restorations. The site has retained its religious function while becoming a major monument for art history and cultural tourism.

Santa Croce sits on the east side of Florence’s historic centre at Piazza Santa Croce, within easy walking distance of the Arno River and other central museums and churches.

• Art and tombs: The church is an important repository of Renaissance and Gothic art, with fresco cycles attributed to Giotto and later funerary monuments for major Italian cultural figures.

What to See #

• Basilica interior and chapels: The main Franciscan basilica founded in the late 13th century, containing a large nave, multiple chapels decorated with fresco cycles and the monumental tombs of several Italian figures.
• Pazzi Chapel: A Renaissance chapel within the complex designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and notable for its proportional architecture and unfinished classical forms.
• Cloisters and leather school: Cloisters adjacent to the basilica that house the historic Scuola del Cuoio, a leather workshop where artisans produce traditional Florentine leather goods on site.
• Monumental tombs: A group of monumental tombs and cenotaphs including those commemorating figures such as Michelangelo, Galileo and Niccolò Machiavelli.