subject: Basilica of San Marco - Florence [print this page] Basilica of San Marco - Florence Basilica of San Marco - Florence
When You book a guided tour in Florence, with us You'll realize how beautiful and magic this town is.
The basilica of San Marco in Florence is one of the churches of the old town overlooking a busy square and forming a reference point for the surrounding area that takes its name. The church was originally part of the large convent of San Marco, which now houses the Museo Nazionale di San Marco. In this monastery lived and worked many of the most important representatives of spirituality and culture of XV century: Cosimo the Elder, St. Anthony, Beato Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, Tommaso Caccini known for having prosecuted Galileo Galilei and Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who preached against the decay of morals,
eventually hanged and then burned in Piazza della Signoria.Formerly there was an oratory dedicated to St George then attached to the convent. The current monastery was built on the site where since the twelfth century there was a Vallombrosano monastery, then moved to the Silvestrini that came from the church of the county of San Marco Vecchio, from which the dedication to the evangelist Marco. At the time this area was called Cafaggio, that's why in the early documents the church is cited as the San Marco al Cafaggio. The facade of San Marco is in neoclassical style and dates from 1777-78. It was built by Fra 'Giovanni Battista Paladini, as remembered by an inscription on the window. The bell tower was built in 1512 designed by Baccio d'Agnolo. In the sacristy, with vestments from the fifteenth to seventeenth century, is the first tomb of St. Antonino Pierozzi, archbishop of Florence since 1446, with the bronze figure of the saint.
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