Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
when Ferdinando I de' Medici ordered them here to replace the often malodorous presen-
ce of the town butchers, who used to toss unwanted leftovers into the river.
The bridge as it stands was built in 1345 and was the only one saved from destruction at
the hands of the retreating Germans in 1944. What you see above the shops on the eastern
(rather than straight through) the medieval
Torre dei Mannelli
at the bridge's southern end.
CHURCH
Basilica di Santo Spirito
MAP
GOOGLE MAP
(Piazza Santo Spirito; 8.30am-12.30pm & 4-5.30pm Thu-Tue)
The facade of this
Brunelleschi church, smart on Florence's most shabby-chic piazza, is most striking in
summer when it forms an atmospheric backdrop to open-air concerts and a buzzing social
scene. Inside, the basilica's length is lined with 38 semicircular chapels (covered with a
plain wall in the 1960s), and a colonnade of grey
pietra forte
Corinthian columns injects
monumental grandeur.
Artworks to look for include Domenico di Zanobi's
Madonna of the Relief
(1485) in the
Cappella Velutti
, in which the Madonna wards off a little red devil with a club, and Filip-
pino Lippi's poorly lit
Madonna with Child and Saints
(1493-94) in the
Cappella Nerli
in
the right transept.
The main altar, beneath the central dome, is a voluptuous baroque flourish, rather out of
place in Brunelleschi's characteristically spare interior.
Don't miss the door next to
Capella Segni
in the left aisle leading to the
sacristy
, where
you'll find a poignant wooden crucifix attributed by some experts to Michelangelo.
Michelangelo used to visit the hospital inside the neighbouring monastery at night to
study the anatomy of corpses yet to be buried, hence his donation of the exquisitely sculp-
tured Christ, or so the story goes.
Cenacolo di Santo Spirito
(Piazza Santo Spirito 29; admission €2.50; 10am-4pm Sat-Mon)
For a change of pace from the
Renaissance, head to this former refectory decorated with a grand fresco by Andrea Or-
cagna depicting the
Last Supper and the Crucifixion
(c 1370). Inside, a collection of rare
11th-century Romanesque sculpture woos.
MUSEUM
