Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella is the first large is the first large Basilica in Florence. Right next to the train station, it is also the first Basilica you see upon arriving.

Basilica di’ Santa Maria Novella wasn’t consecrated until 1420.

But groundbreaking was in 1279, which meshes with the narrative of lots of Gothic Churches begun near the end of the Medieval Warm Period.

The 1966 Arno Flood caused a lot of damage, some of which has been restored.

Marble Facade

The horizontal stripes are Romanesque, the pointed arches are Gothic, and the squares and circles are Renaissance.

Nave

This is 14th-Century Gothic Architecture. The nave is 330 feet long, but looks even longer because towards the front the floor is higher, the arches are lower, and the column spacing is narrower.

Giotto’s Crucifix, from the 14th Century, is an early attempt at three-dimensionality. (Giotto is also the architect of Florence Cathedral, and the bell tower next to Florence Cathedral is named after him).

Just to the right of the alter, the fresco St. Philip at the Temple of Mars by Filippino Lippi, a farting dragon emerges from the altar in the Temple of Mars, to mock the statue of the pagan God Mars.