Florence Room with a Pew

I knew a little about Santa Croce before I came to Florence. This was obviously due to E M Forster’s novel which begins in this area.

The nave of the church is magnificent with its display of exposed beams but the rest of the place is a mess. The walls of the church are littered with monuments to some very worthy Florentines and some not so worthy. Here you can see a magnificent pile of statues dedicated to Michelangelo and designed by Vasari no less.

But there are also tombs and other piles dedicated to Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante, Ghiberti and Rossini. Condemned to death by the Florentines, Dante died miles away in Ravenna where he was buried. Only more recently was he commemorated by a monstrous sort of cenotaph designed by Stephano Ricci in 1829. As fate would have it, almost all of Dante’s good stuff was written whilst he was away from his home city. Even some Florentines admit that, only in Siena, is the “language of Dante” spoken. (People in Florence soften some of their consonants – rather nicely I think personally – but it supposedly detracts from the ideal universal language about which Dante was interested).

I also noticed a little plaque to Marconi, a pioneer (or perhaps the pioneer?) of radio. The people who survived the Titanic disaster, did so because of him. He was a Bolognese but studied in Florence.Unfortunately, he was a pal of Mussollini so perhaps the size of the plaque reflects this?

The place was constructed about seven hundred years ago for the Franciscans just about the same that Santa Maria Novella was being built for the Benedictines. so it just had to be bigger than Santa Maria Novella! And I suppose it is. But, although it’s big, the patrons assumed the right to dump all sorts of stuff in the place besides their remains. Hence the “mess”.

But there are so many beautiful works of art! Once more it takes your breath away. Frescos abound although most of them are in poor condition. There’s also  a museum with heaps more beautiful stuff. Peeking through a hole in the wall, I see a beautiful garden not open to the public. It’s a very spacious place.

The refectory or cenacolo (they stress the second syllable) has a very large ‘last supper’ fresco by Taddeo Gaddi with the family tree (drawn as an actual tree!) of Jesus above. The original was a fresco but this been transferred to canvas. It still looks good though. They use the cenacolo for concerts now and then. Another great venue to add to the many others throughout Florence.

Another Dante memorial used to dominate the centre of the piazza in front of Santa Croce but it was moved because it got in the way of the funny football match. The piazza houses craft markets on some days of the week and is a popular meeting place. It’s an incredibly large area.