Famous Landmarks in Florence
A medieval trade and finance city crowned by the largest masonry dome ever built.
Florence's landmarks sit close together around the Piazza del Duomo and the Arno, legacy of a city that grew wealthy on medieval trade and finance and later became the centre of the Renaissance. The cathedral's marble panels in green, pink and white, capped by a dome that remains the largest masonry dome ever built, stand a few streets from the Palazzo Vecchio, once seat of the Republic's ruling council, and from the shop-lined arches of the Ponte Vecchio, the only Florentine bridge spared destruction in the Second World War. Away from that core, two mendicant orders raised rival basilicas: the Franciscans' Santa Croce and the Dominicans' Santa Maria Novella, its geometric marble façade begun in the Gothic period and finished under Renaissance direction.
Florence Cathedral
1296–1436 · Filippo Brunelleschi
The exterior is faced in alternating panels of green, pink and white marble, while the elaborate west front, in a 19th-century Gothic Revival style, looks visibly newer than the rest of the building it fronts. It stands alongside the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile as one of the largest church complexes in the world.
The cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, begun in 1296 to a Gothic design by Arnolfo di Cambio and completed in 1436, when Filippo Brunelleschi's dome was finished. One of the world's largest churches, it forms a complex with the Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile, together part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre. Its west façade, in a 19th-century Gothic Revival style by Emilio De Fabris, was added centuries after the rest of the building. It remains the seat of the Archdiocese of Florence.
- The dome remains the largest masonry dome ever constructed.
- The west façade was not added until the 19th century, in a Gothic Revival design very different from the medieval body it fronts.
Photo: Daniel Mietchen (CC0)
Palazzo Vecchio
1314 · Arnolfo di Cambio
It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, fronted by a copy of Michelangelo's David and the open-air gallery of statues in the adjoining Loggia dei Lanzi, and mixes Romanesque and Gothic architectural elements.
Built as the town hall of the Republic of Florence, this palace was originally called the Palazzo della Signoria after the Signoria, the city's ruling council, and later known also as the Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo dei Priori and Palazzo Ducale as its use changed. It took its current name once the ruling Medici duke's residence moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti, freeing this building for other uses. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi's gallery of statues.
- The building has carried at least four different names over the centuries — Palazzo della Signoria, del Popolo, dei Priori and Ducale — reflecting shifts in who governed from it.
Photo: Francesco Bini (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ponte Vecchio
1345 · Neri di Fioravante
A stone segmental arch bridge whose deck is built up with shops on both sides — once occupied by butchers and tanners, now by jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers — and today closed to vehicles, carrying only foot traffic between the two riverbanks.
A medieval stone bridge built with closed-spandrel segmental arches, it took its name once the newer Ponte alla Carraia was built nearby, becoming the 'old bridge' by comparison. Shops have lined its deck since medieval times, first worked by butchers, tanners and farmers and now by jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. The only Florentine bridge to survive the Second World War undamaged, it remains closed to vehicles and carries heavy pedestrian traffic between two of the city's main squares.
- A Roman crossing on this site once linked the road network to the Via Cassia Nova, commissioned by the emperor Hadrian in 123 AD.
Photo: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Basilica of Santa Croce
1294–1385 · Arnolfo di Cambio
Known as the Temple of the Italian Glories for the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and other noted Italians inside, this Gothic-style basilica stands on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres southeast of the cathedral.
The principal Franciscan church of the city, raised on what had been marshland beyond the old walls, about 800 metres southeast of the cathedral. It is best known as a burial place for notable Italians: the Renaissance figures Michelangelo and Machiavelli, the scientist Galileo, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini all lie inside, which is why the church is also called the Temple of the Italian Glories.
Photo: Rhododendrites (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Santa Maria Novella
1290–1420 · Fra' Ristoro da Campi
The façade's geometric pattern of white and green marble includes an upper section added in 1470 by Leon Battista Alberti, visibly different in style from the older lower register. Inside are Giotto's Crucifix and Masaccio's Holy Trinity, the first monumental Renaissance painting built on linear perspective.
A Dominican church considered the most important Romano-Gothic building in Tuscany, construction on it began in 1290 and took nearly two centuries, ending with consecration in 1420; the upper part of the façade was added only in 1470, by Leon Battista Alberti. Wealthy Florentine families financed the building and its decoration in return for funerary chapels inside. It is a World Heritage Site and holds Giotto's Crucifix and Masaccio's Holy Trinity, among the most influential paintings of their respective periods.
- Giotto's Crucifix inside changed how Christ on the cross was depicted in art for the following two centuries.
Photo: Commonists (CC BY-SA 4.0)
History
Florence grew wealthy on medieval trade and finance, and that wealth built its skyline. The city's Republican government raised the Palazzo Vecchio as its seat from 1314, while the Franciscans and Dominicans began their own basilicas, Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, in the same Gothic decades. Work on the cathedral started in 1296 to Arnolfo di Cambio's design and continued for well over a century; Filippo Brunelleschi's dome, completed in 1436, marked the city's shift from Gothic building toward the Renaissance it is credited with starting. The Medici family's long dominance funded further building and patronage, and a Gothic Revival façade was added to the cathedral only in the 19th century, under Emilio De Fabris. Florence briefly served as capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871.