The Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito In Florence

One of Florence's main churches, this structure is usually referred to simply as the Santo Spirito. It faces the square named after it and is located in the Oltrarno quarter. This church is one of the most beautiful examples of Renaissance architecture in the city.

The church as it now exists was constructed over the ruins of an Augustinian convent built in the thirteenth century and destroyed by fire. Designed for the new building were created by Filippo Brunelleschi as early as 1428, but the work was not carried out until much later.

The ground plan and area below the arcades are somewhat faithful to Brunelleschi's vision, and the Latin cross maximizes the legibility of the grid. Forty side chapels in the form of niches run along the whole outside of the space. The facade designed by Brunelleschi, however, was never built.

A sacristy was built to the building's left in 1489, and a door in a chapel was opened up to connect it to the church. In 1601, a Baroque baldachin by Giovanni Battista Caccini and Gherardo Silvani in polychromatic marble was placed over the high altar, but the church interior was undecorated until the eighteenth century, when plastering of the walls occurred.

The inner facade of the church was done by Salvi d'Andrea, and still has its original glass window. The building's exterior underwent restoration in the late 1970s.

There are currently only thirty-eight side chapels, since two have been converted to doors, but the remaining ones house an enormous number of beautiful pieces of art. Frescos by Filippino Lippi decorate the chepals of the transept, and the octagonal plan sacristy is home to a late sixteenth century painting of St. Fiacre commissioned by the wife of Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici.

The other most famous work in the Bascilica is Michelangelo's cross. When Michelangelo Buonarroti was a guest of the convent at the age of seventeen, he made anatomic studies on corpses from the convent's hospital in order to more effectively learn his craft. In exchange for the ability to do this, he sculpted a wooden crucifix which was located over the high altar, but can today be seen in the sacristy.

Two cloisters also exist at the convent, the Cloister of the Dead and the Grand Cloiter. The first one has walls decorated with many tombstones and was built around the turn of the seventeenth century, while the other is a classicist cloister dating from the middle of the sixteenth century. The former convent also contains a large fresco of the Crucifixion and Last Supper, the latter of which is sadly partially destroyed - both date from the fourteenth century.

If you'll be in the area of the Santo Spirito, you should take some time to check out its impressive architecture and beautiful interior artwork, as well as all the other attractions in the area. Florence apartments in this region are an excellent choice, too - you'll get the chance to see all kinds of attractions and have a comfortable place to return to at night. Take a look at our range of Santo Spirito apartments now.