The Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence is the largest Franciscan church in the world and the burial place of a concentration of Italian genius without parallel in any single building in the country. Michelangelo Buonarroti's tomb (designed by Vasari) is on the right aisle. Galileo Galilei's tomb (added in 1737, a century after his death, he was initially refused burial in consecrated ground because of the Inquisition's condemnation) is on the left aisle. Niccolò Machiavelli's slab is on the right aisle near Michelangelo's. Lorenzo Ghiberti, sculptor of the Baptistry doors, is buried in the paving. Ugo Foscolo, the Romantic poet whose neoclassical poem "Dei Sepolcri" was inspired by this church and by its graves, is here. Gioachino Rossini is here. The architect Brunelleschi designed the Pazzi Chapel in the cloister. And in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels to the right of the high altar, Giotto painted the frescoes that ended Byzantine painting and began the Renaissance.
Santa Croce isn't primarily a tourist attraction. It is an active Franciscan church that also happens to be the spiritual and monumental center of Florentine civic and intellectual identity. The combination requires a specific approach: moving slowly through the chapels and aisles, giving each tomb and each fresco the time it deserves, and understanding the building as a palimpsest of seven centuries of Florentine ambition.
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The Giotto Frescoes: The Start of Everything
Bardi Chapel. Life of Saint Francis
The Bardi Chapel (immediately right of the high altar) was painted by Giotto approximately 1310-1325 with scenes from the life of Saint Francis: the Renunciation of Worldly Goods, the Approval of the Rule of the Franciscan Order, the Vision of the Thrones, the Stigmatization, the Death of Francis and Verification of the Stigmata. The quality of the individual scenes varies, some sections are better preserved, some were damaged by a whitewash applied in the eighteenth century and later removed, but the cumulative effect of the cycle is the clearest demonstration of what Giotto changed in European painting: figures who stand in space, who gesture with meaning, whose faces show individual psychology, who exist in a world continuous with the viewer's world rather than floating in symbolic gold.
Basilica Santa Croce: tours & tickets
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The adjacent Peruzzi Chapel (to the right of the Bardi) was painted by Giotto with scenes from the two Saint John cycles. The architectural settings in the Peruzzi Chapel are more ambitious than anything in the Bardi, interior spaces, exterior facades, spatial boxes that anticipate the perspectival experiments of Masaccio a century later. The Feast of Herod and the Dance of Salome on the left wall are among the most psychologically specific narrative scenes Giotto produced.
The Tombs and Monuments
Michelangelo (1564). Right Aisle
Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564 and was immediately claimed by Florence, his body was smuggled out of Rome by his nephew, who feared the Romans would keep it. The tomb, designed by Giorgio Vasari, has three allegorical figures (Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture) weeping over the central sarcophagus. Michelangelo chose to be buried here rather than in Rome. The church's location near the place he was born in the Florentine countryside had sentimental significance for him.
Galileo Galilei (1642, buried here 1737)
Galileo died under house arrest in Arcetri (the hills above Florence) in 1642, condemned by the Inquisition for advocating heliocentrism. For nearly a century, the Church refused to permit his burial in Santa Croce despite his fame. In 1737, Pope Clement XII quietly allowed the transfer and the monument was built. The tomb monument, across the nave from Michelangelo's, has allegorical figures of Astronomy and Geometry. The long delay between death and tomb is a monument to the Galileo affair's complexity in Catholic history.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1527). Right Aisle
The Renaissance political philosopher's wall monument has the inscription "TANTO NOMINI NULLUM PAR ELOGIUM", no praise is equal to so great a name. Machiavelli died in obscurity and bitterness, having been marginalized from Florentine political life after the Medici's return. His rehabilitation into the Florentine canon took centuries.
Q&A: Basilica di Santa Croce
How much does Santa Croce cost?
Admission approximately €8-9 for the basilica, chapels, and Pazzi Chapel cloister. The church interior is free on weekdays during morning Mass hours (6am-9am approximately). Tourist admission applies during the rest of the day. Pre-booking isn't required but avoids queues in peak season. Combined ticket with the Casa Buonarroti (Michelangelo's family home, now a museum) is available.
Where is Santa Croce in Florence?
Piazza di Santa Croce, the large square in front of the church, one of Florence's primary public spaces, is in the eastern part of the historic center, approximately 10 minutes' walk from the Uffizi and 15 minutes from the Duomo. The square has been used for jousting, football (calcio storico, the brutal sixteenth-century football predecessor, is still played here in June), and public demonstrations throughout Florentine history. The Piazza's surrounding buildings include several important Florentine family palaces.
Is the Pazzi Chapel worth seeing?
Yes, the Pazzi Chapel (1461-1478, designed by Brunelleschi, completed after his death) in the cloister of Santa Croce is one of the most technically refined small buildings of the Renaissance: a centrally planned chapel with a dome, a barrel-vaulted porch, and a geometric precision that makes every spatial relationship visible and legible. The interior glazed terracotta roundels by Luca della Robbia in the pendentives and lunettes are among the finest examples of that specific craft. Admission to the chapel is included with the Santa Croce ticket.
What Nobody Tells You About Santa Croce
The Bardi and Peruzzi Chapel Giotto frescoes, the most important paintings in the building for anyone interested in the history of Western art, are visible from the nave through screens but require entering the chapels for close viewing. The chapel screens are often left open during visiting hours. If closed, ask a staff member for access. The specific detail of the Peruzzi Chapel's Feast of Herod, the spatial recession of the architectural setting, the individual facial expressions of the figures watching Salome dance, the almost casual normality of the scene compared to the horror it depicts, rewards very close looking that the nave view distance can't provide.
Internal Links
- Italian Renaissance Art: Giotto as the Starting Point
- Bargello Florence: The Sculpture Complement
- Rome's Renaissance and Baroque Collections
- Ravenna: Byzantine Art Before Giotto Changed Everything
- Padova Scrovegni: Giotto's Earlier and More Complete Cycle
- Florentine Food Souvenirs Near Santa Croce
- Florence Coffee Culture: Bars Near Piazza Santa Croce
