Basilica · Italy · Restored

Basilica of Santa Croce

Basilica di Santa Croce

The Basilica of Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church of Florence and a large basilican church notable for its sixteen chapels, extensive funerary monuments, and major fresco cycles. It functions as a civic pantheon for many celebrated Italians and sits on the Piazza Santa Croce with a completed nineteenth‑century polychrome marble façade.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1294

Its prime

1887

Today

Restored

As it stood in 1887

What Basilica of Santa Croce looked like in its prime.

A wide neo‑Gothic polychrome marble façade of white and green panels crowned by three gabled cusps, a large circular stained‑glass rose set in a square frame, and three pointed portals with sculpted lunettes. The basilica’s plan is a long T‑shaped Franciscan church: a 115‑metre nave under an exposed wooden truss roof, two aisles divided by octagonal piers, a high clerestory gallery (ballatoio) above the arcades, side chapels recessed between false gabled bays, and a marble‑inlaid floor densely paved with funerary slabs and memorials.

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12 places to explore in 1887.

The record describes 12 distinct spots at Basilica of Santa Croce, including 7 interiors: central nave toward the apse, nave floor with funerary slabs, michelangelo monument (right aisle) and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Piazza approach (full façade)Façade tympanum and rose windowCentral portal and lunetteCentral nave toward the apseNave floor with funerary slabsMichelangelo monument (right aisle)Bardi Chapel (Giotto frescoes)Peruzzi Chapel (Giotto)Apse and high‑altar areaRefectory with large crucifix and Last SupperCappella dei Pazzi and Primo ChiostroCampanile (bell tower) from the side

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