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.
Art
Artists whose work is present in the church include:
Benedetto da Maiano (pulpit; doors to Cappella dei Pazzi, with his brother Giuliano)
Donatello (relief of the Annunciation on the south wall; crucifix in the lefthand Cappella Bardi; St Louis of Toulouse in the refectory, originally made for the Orsanmichele)
Agnolo Gaddi (frescoes in Cappella Castellani and chancel; stained glass in chancel)
Taddeo Gaddi (frescoes in Cappella Baroncelli; Crucifixion in the sacristy; Last Supper in the refectory, considered his best work)
Giotto (frescoes in Cappella Peruzzi and righthand Cappella Bardi; possibly Coronation of the Virgin, altarpiece in Cappella Baroncelli)
Giovanni da Milano (frescoes in Cappella Rinuccini)
Masso di Banco (frescoes in Cappella Bardi di Vernio)
Henry Moore (statue of a warrior in the Primo Chiostro)
Andrea Orcagna (frescoes largely disappeared during Vasari's remodelling, but some fragments remain in the refectory)
In this particular rendition of the royal arms, the unicorn seems to have mislaid his horn, and bears a significant resemblance to a horse; the chain too is not affixed in the normal fashion.
Charles Perçier was born in Paris in 1764, and died in Paris in 1838.
Antonio Canova was born in Possagno, near Treviso, in 1757, and died in Venice in 1822.
During the Lombard period Florence belonged to the Duchy of Chiusi; after the absorption of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne, who spent at Florence the Christmas of 786, it was the residence of a count whose overlord was margrave of Tuscany.
Florence is the seat of a university, and possesses also an institute of social science, conservatory of music, a botanical garden, and an observatory (astronomical, meteorological, and seismological).
Santa Maria del Carmine, con tains the Brancacci Chapel, with frescoes by Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi.
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