Florence & Tuscany - Italy - page 1114

Sights

5 Casa Vasari B1

6 Piazza Grande C3

Sleeping

7 La Corte Del Re C3

8 Palazzo dei Bostoli C3

Eating

9 La Bottega di Gnicche C3

10 La Torre di Gnicche D3

11 LAB Pasticceria C3

12 Trattoria del Leone B3

Sights

A combined ticket (€12) gives entry to the Cappella Bacci, Museo Archeologico
Nazionale and Casa di Vasari.

Cappella Bacci
OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP

CHURCH

( 0575 35 27 27; www.pierodellafrancesca.it ; Piazza San Francesco; adult/reduced €8/5;
9am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, to 5.30pm Sat & 1-5.30pm Sun May-Aug; 9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, to 5pm Sat &
1-5pm Sun Sep-Apr) Gracing the apse of the 14th-century Basilica di San Francesco is the
Capella Bacci, a chapel housing one of the greatest works of Italian art, Piero della
Francesca's fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross . Painted between 1452 and
1466, it relates in 10 episodes the story of the cross on which Christ was crucified.
This medieval legend is as entertaining as it is inconceivable. The illustrations begin in
the top right-hand corner and follow the story of the tree that Seth plants on the grave of
his father, Adam, and from which the True Cross is made.
Rarely will you get a better sense of medieval frescoes as strip cartoons, telling a tale
with vigour and sheer beauty. Art buffs will be struck by Piero's innovations with light,
perspective and geometric perfection; and film buffs will be reminded of the famous scene