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Churches

Ognissanti

Borgo Ognissanti 42.
Tel. 055 239 87 00

Open: 8:30am-12:30pm, 4-6pm Mon-Fri; 9:30-10:30am, 3:30-5pm Sat, 9:30-10:30am, 4-5:30pm Sun.
Closed: First and last Mon of month.

Cenacolo del Ghirlandio Open: 9am-noon Mon, Tue & Sat.

The church of All Saints, or Ognissanti, was the parish church of the merchant family of the Vespucci, one of whose members, the 15th century navigator Amerigo, gave his name to the New World. Amerigo is depicted in Ghirlandio's fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia (1472) in the second chapel on the right. Amerigo Vespucci was the first to realise that the land discovered by Columbus was a new continent, not the eastern shore of the Indies. He made two voyages following Columbus's route and, because his letters enabled cartographers to draw the first maps of the new land, it was given his name.

Ognissanti is also the burial place of Sandro Botticelli. His fresco of St. Augustine (1480) can be seen on the south wall. It is complemented by Ghirlandio's St. Jerome (1480) on the opposite wall.

Alongside the church is a cloister and refectory, containing Ghirlandio's fresco The Last Supper (1480) with its background of birds and trees.

Santa Maria Novella

Piazza di Santa Maria Novella
Church Tel. 055 21 59 18
Museum Tel. 055 28 21 87

Church Open: 9:30am-5pm Mon-Thu; 1-5pm Fri-Sun.
Church Services: 7:30am, 6pm Mon-Sat, 8:30am, 10:30am, noon, 6pm Sun & religious holidays.
Museum Open: 9am-5pm Mon-Thu, Sat.
Museum Closed: 8th Dec, 25th Dec.

The Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella contains some of the most important works of art in Florence. The church was built by the Dominicans from 1279 to 1357. Beside the church is a cemetery walled in with avelli (grave niches), which continue along the façade and the wall beyond. The cloisters form a museum. Here, the frescoes in the Spanish Chapel show the Dominicans as whippets- domini canes or hounds of God- rounding up the "stray sheep".

Key Features:

The Trinity by Masaccio
Masaccio's pioneering work is a masterpiece of perspective and portraiture.

Spanish Chapel
The chapel used by the Spanish courtiers of Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I, has dramatic frescoes on the theme of salvation and damnation.

Tornabouni Chapel
Ghirlandaio's famous fresco cycle, The Life of John the Baptist (1485), portrays Florentine aristocrats and contemporary costumes and furnishings. Opposite is his other masterpiece, The Life of the Virgin.

Filippo Strozzi Chapel
Filippo Lippi's dramatic frescoes show St. John raising Drusiana from the dead and St. Philip slaying a dragon. Boccaccio set the beginning of The Decameron in this chapel.

Santa Trinità

Piazza di Santa Trinità
Tel. 055 21 69 12

Open: 8am-noon, 4-6pm Mon-Sat, 4-6pm Sun.

The original church, built in the second half of the 11th century by the Vallombrosan monastic order, was very plain- a reflection of the austerity of the order, which was founded in Florence in 1092 to restore the simplicity of monastic rule. Gradually, the building became more ornate, with a Baroque façade added in 1593. Inside, the east wall shows traces of its Romanesque predecessor.
Ghirlandaio's frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel (right of the High Altar) show what the church looked like in 1483-6.

Santi Apostoli

Piazza del Limbo
Tel. 055 29 06 42

Open: 10am-noon, 4-7pm daily.

The little church of the Holy Apostles is, along with the Baptistry, among the oldest surviving churches in Florence. Florentines like to think that the church was founded in 800AD by the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, but it more likely dates to 1059-1100. The church has a simple Romanesque façade and the basilican plan typical of early Christian churches, but with 16th century side aisles.

Santi Apostoli fronts Piazza del Limbo, so called because there was a cemetery here for infants who died before they were baptized. Hence, according to medieval theology, their souls dwelt in limbo-halfway between heaven and hell.

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