Contenus masquer
1 Must-See
2 Church Description
3 Historical Overview
4 Where Santa Maria Novella in Florence is Located
5 Information

Santa Maria Novella is the large Dominican church located at the entrance to the historic center of Florence, facing the station of the same name. Its façade, combining Gothic elements with the upper part designed by Leon Battista Alberti, is one of the first successful attempts at Renaissance architecture applied to a church façade.
Inside, the basilica houses rich fresco cycles (including the Tornabuoni Chapel and the Spanish Chapel), masterpieces such as Masaccio’s Trinity and crucifixes by Giotto, as well as a cloistered and museum complex accessible to visitors.

Must-See

  • The Alberti façade (Renaissance harmony on a Gothic base).
  • Masaccio’s Trinity (pioneering fresco in perspective).
  • The Tornabuoni Chapel (Ghirlandaio cycle) and the Spanish Chapel (Andrea di Bonaiuto).
  • Giotto’s Crucifix and other major liturgical furnishings.
  • The cloisters and museum of the complex to view preserved works and restored objects.
Santa Maria Novella in Florence
Nave of Santa Maria Novella
Major Chapel or Tornabuoni, Santa Maria Novella in Florence
Major chapel or Tornabuoni chapel

Church Description

The interior volume of Santa Maria Novella follows a very clear basilica plan: a large central nave flanked by aisles, a transept, and a choir housing the main chapel (Tornabuoni). The large arches and piers structure the space, while the black-and-white polychromy of the arches and columns imparts a solemn restraint. Light filters through high windows, some dating from the 15th century.
Along the side spaces are private chapels richly decorated by Florentine families, preserving highly legible narrative cycles.

The Tornabuoni Chapel, to the right of the choir, provides an example of refined narrative painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop (late 15th century); it is renowned for the clarity of its scenes and the quality of the contemporary portraits depicted.
The “Spanish Chapel” (Cappella Strozzi, by Andrea di Bonaiuto) develops a vast allegorical and theological program illustrating the glory of the Dominican order.
Nearby, the famous Trinity by Masaccio, in the Brancacci Chapel, represents a pictorial revolution through the consistent use of linear perspective and the solidity of forms.

 

The movable and sculpted works — crucifixes, stuccos, altarpieces, and sacristy elements — complete the experience and demonstrate the continuity of Florentine artistic production from the 13th to the 16th century. The adjoining cloisters and museum allow visitors to see pieces moved for conservation (panels, sculptures, decorative elements) and provide a monastic context conducive to understanding the site. The entire complex remains accessible to the public through paid routes with schedules that vary by season.

Fresco by Andrea di Bonquantities, Santa Maria Novella
Frescoes by Andrea Bonquantities, Cappellone degli Spagnoli
Fresco by Filippino Lippi, Strozzi Chapel, Santa Maria Novella
Chapel of Filippo Strozzi, frescoes by Filippino Lippi, Saint Philip hunts the dragon from the temple of Hierapolis
Creation and fall, Paolo Uccello
Frescoes of the Cloister by Paolo Uccello: creation and fall

Historical Overview

The Santa Maria Novella complex began developing with the arrival of the Dominicans in Florence (early 13th century); construction of the new church spanned from the 13th to the 15th century, resulting in a building where Gothic traditions overlap with humanist innovations. The lower façade and medieval structure predate Alberti’s intervention (mid-15th century), who completed the upper part and adapted classical language to the church’s proportions.

Over the centuries, Santa Maria Novella became a prestigious site for families and confraternities who funded chapels and decorative cycles (Tornabuoni, Strozzi, Rucellai). In the 14th–15th centuries, the basilica hosted major artists — Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, Filippo Lippi — and played a central role in the dissemination of artistic and theological innovations. The complex has gone through periods of restoration and dramatic events (notably flood damage and, in the 20th century, conservation campaigns), before establishing itself today as a museum complex open to the public.

Where Santa Maria Novella in Florence is Located

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