Santa Maria Novella Cathedral

About

Dominican friars settle in Florence around 1221, and the foundation stone of the present church is laid on 18 October 1279. The nave takes shape by the mid-fourteenth century and is formally consecrated in 1420. The marble-clad facade is designed and completed by Leon Battista Alberti between 1458 and around 1470, commissioned by patron Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai. On the left wall of the nave hangs Masaccio's fresco Trinity, painted between 1425 and 1427, a work whose command of linear perspective marks it as one of the founding works of Renaissance painting. A crucifix painted by Giotto around 1290 also hangs within the church, and the Tornabuoni Chapel is covered with Domenico Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle depicting the lives of the Virgin and John the Baptist. The church was raised to the status of a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XV in October 1919, and it still stands facing the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella in Florence today.