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Florence's Westminster
Florence's Santa Croce church: Giotto frescoes and the tombs of Renaissance giants Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo
This big ol' barn of a Franciscan church on Florence's western edge has some great Giotto frescoes, but is also the Westminster Abbey of the Renaissance. It sports the tombs of Michelangelo, composer Rossini (Barber of Seville and the William Tell Overture, a.k.a. the Lone Ranger Theme), political thinker and writer Machiavelli (who's gotten a bad rap for coming right out and saying a good ruler sometimes has to be sneaky), and Pisan scientist Galileo (the guy who dropped balls of differing weights off the Leaning Tower and went on to get excommunicated for claiming the Earth orbited the sun).
Head to the right transept to see two chapels covered by the frescoes of Giotto, a former shepherd who became the forefather of the Renaissance in the early 14th century when he broke painting out of its static Byzantine mold and infused it with life, movement, depth, and emotion.
Off the right transept, a corridor leads through the gift shop to the monastery's famed leather school (a bit pricey, but of very high quality).
Exit Santa Croce and look to the right of the facade where a small doorway leads into the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce, a series of pretty cloisters containing modern sculptures and the Pazzi Chapel, one of Brunelleschi's architectural masterpieces. Also here is a long gallery filled with some of the art salvaged from the 1966 Arno flood (which inundated the city with 20 feet of water and mud), including a badly damaged Crucifix by Cimabue, Giotto's teacher.
Piazza Santa Croce
tel. +39-055-246-6105
Museum clsoed Wednesdays
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This material was last updated January 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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