Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

Basilica of Santa Croce

Built in 1294 by the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce to the legend, St. Francis of Assisi himself laid the foundation stone is also referred to as the " Pantheon of Florence". However, this is not because of their architecture, but remember that there are the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Gioachino Rossini, Guglielmo Marconi and Galileo, as well as monuments to many other famous Italians here. In addition, the Church has become ever popular in its investment from the classic simplicity of Franciscan churches, which, however, increased here in the Monumental, and furnished with frescoes by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi and other masters.

Santa Croce is the largest and one of the most important Franciscan churches in Italy. In contrast to the Cistercians, the preferred lonely valleys for its monasteries, chose the Dominicans and the Franciscans as a mendicant prefer a location on the outskirts of each city. They wanted to act no contemplative religious contemplation, but in the people inside. Therefore reached their churches also often considerable size. To be buried in them, was considered by many as a guarantee of salvation from sin, since the monks were praying for them. Large families often donated large chapels and let them equip magnificently.

Architectural History

The foundation stone is said to have taken place according to an inscription on May 3, 1295, some historians believe the year 1294th The design came from the architect Arnolfo di Cambio, who also designed the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Construction work on the choir and the transept lasted until the year 1300. Around the year 1385 the church was completed up to the facades. Brunelleschi designed the Cappella dei Pazzi in the cloister south of the church, which was built by 1430, the Pazzi family, and which was never completed.

In the 16th century it began to build a Campanile according to designs by Francesco da Sangallo to. The tower was never finished, his remains were demolished in 1854.

The work on the facades finished until Nicola Matas in 1863.

1933 was the Church by Pope Pius XI. the title of minor basilica.

Equipment

In the church there are many masterpieces of Italian painters from the 14th century. Thus one finds, for example, a crucifix that Cimabue was designed in the late 13th century. This crucifix was damaged by the flood in Florence in 1966 and despite restoration of the face of Christ is quite blurred. Giotto was in 1317 responsible for the composition and execution of the frescoes in the Peruzzikapelle (scenes from the life of Saint John and Saint John the Baptist ) and in the Bardikapelle ( scenes from the life of St. Francis ). The scenes from the life of Mary in the Baroncelli Chapel designed by Taddeo Gaddi. In the Castell Anika Pelle, frescoes by Agnolo Gaddi, the son of Taddeo Gaddi, and of Gherardo Starnina, painted by the 14th century at the end. Donatello created in 1425 a crucifix and an Annunciation for the Cavalcanti family; the crucifix has the face of an Italian peasant.

Specifications

Along with the Cathedral and Santa Maria Novella, the Dominican church in Florence, Santa Croce forms the great triad of Gothic religious architecture in Florence, which - in comparison with the Gothic in France - is characterized by a different conception of space: wide arcaded openings to the side aisles, about a low clerestory zone - which, however, in Santa Croce not by a stone vault, but - is completed by an open rafter roof - more than quoting him according to their ideal of Franciscan simplicity. The continuous strong Konsolgesims emphasizes the impression of storage, although the clear height of the nave, at 34.5 meters is greater than that of Notre- Dame in Paris and almost as large as that of Chartres and Reims.

At the narrow three-aisled nave, a transept connects and immediately after the narrow choir, accompanied by five rectangular side chapels, which are the jewels of the church. Because they are largely painted with medieval frescoes.

S. Croce is the richest of artworks Florentine church - for the reasons already mentioned. Lie on the walls of the side aisles various tombs great Florentine, as those of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Rossini and a cenotaph to Dante Alighieri.

Baroncelli Chapel and the Castellani Chapel

On the walls of the choir chapels is one of the most important fresco cycles of Italian medieval painting. The chapels include the main chapel and the ten side chapels, which are substantially lower. Among the larger chapels in the transept include the Baroncelli Chapel and the Castellani Chapel. The frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi from the years 1332-1338 and depict scenes from the life of Mary. Gaddi was the closest follower of Giotto. These frescoes are yet emerged to Giotto's lifetime.

It is worth noting, inter alia, one of the top scenes that shows the Annunciation to the shepherds of the first night images of art history. She sees you, why the time of the early 14th century. , Ie the time of Giotto, is referred to as Proto - Renaissance. Here we have this calm perspective constructions, which could partly originate from the time of Raphael in 1500. Is significant in the upper and the lower scene, the parts of a church building show that people between the columns form through a common action, so do not let the columns separate. This shows a correspondence with the architecture that already tried at that time to give the impression of a unit space and not this clear division into a nave and side aisles stressed how the North European Gothic ( Toman, p 85).

Bardi and Peruzzi Chapel

The two chapels are located directly to the right of the main chapel. Both families owned large banks in Florence and could afford such expensive Kapellenbauten. The frescoes in the Bardi Chapel depict the life of St. Francis, who founded the Order. They come from Giotto and his school from the years 1315-20. They were only rediscovered in 1852. In the Baroque period they had been painted over and delivered with the tombs. 1852 restored to them, but so radical that you added also missing parts by hand. These were removed, but with the consequence that the whole thing now looks very unfinished at a recent restoration in 1958. A contemporary restoration would take a different approach: They would probably repainted the missing parts in much paler tones, so you can always distinguish the original and the restoration, but the whole thing gives a coherent picture. The time of formation of these frescoes is the one in which the novel by Umberto Eco " The Name of the Rose " plays, 1327. Attempts have therefore taken for the German book design a monk's head from this chapel.

Pazzi Chapel

Organ

The organ was built by the organ builder Giovanni Tamburini. The instrument has 96 registers, four manuals and pedal. The tracker action are electric.