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Home > Italy Travel Guide > Basilica di San Lorenzo

Basilica di San Lorenzo

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Introduction
History
Location

ATTRACTIONS

Interior
Medici Chapels
Laurenziana Library
Works of Art
Funerary Monuments

INFORMATION

Useful information
Links

Introduction

The Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St Lawrence) is one of the largest churches of Florence, situated at the centre of the city's main market district. It was also the parish church of the Medici family. The Medicis gave large amounts of money and Michelangelo supplied designs for the facade but they were never implemented, so the bare bricks are still visible and to this day nobody has financed a facade.

History

It is said that the church of San Lorenzo was founded by St Ambrose in 393 outside the city walls of that time. It was rebuilt in the 11th century in the Romanesque style. For three hundred years it was the city's cathedral before eventually losing the status to Santa Reparata. It was that important exponent of Florentine Renaissance architecture, In 1419, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici offered to finance a new church to replace the Romanesque building. Brunelleschi was commissioned to design it. The work was completed after his death but in accordance with his plans by Antonio Manetti (1447-1460). Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family, had given Michelangelo the commission to design a facade in white Carrara marble in 1518. He made a wooden model, that shows how he adjusted the classical proportions of the facade, drawn to scale after the ideal proportions of the human body, to the greater height of the nave . The campanile dates from 1740.

Location

Address: Piazza San Lorenzo
Transit: Bus: 1, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 31, 32, 36, 37.

Interior

The Renaissance interior is huge, cool and airy and is lined with chapels. Brunelleschi's light, harmonious interior of the church displays the clear-cut articulation of Renaissance architecture: a beautiful marble pavement, columns with Corinthian capitals supporting the broad arches, an intricate coffered ceiling with delicate rosettes. The harmonious proportions of the church's side chapels, aisles and nave denote architecture of the highest order. Opening off the north transept is the domed Sagresta Vecchia (Old Sacristy), the oldest part of the present church, which contains the tombs of several members of the Medici family. It was the only part of the church completed in Brunelleschi's lifetime. Opposite it in the south transept is the Sagrestia Nuova (New Sacristy), begun in 1520 by Michelangelo, who also designed the Medici tombs within.

Medici Chapels

The most celebrated and grandest part of San Lorenzo is the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) in the apse. Although the Medici chapels form part of San Lorenzo they are now administered as a museum in their own right, separately from the church. The Medici were still paying for it when the last member of the family, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, died in 1743. Almost fifty lesser members of the family are buried in the crypt, designed by Bernardo Buontalenti. Above is the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes), begun in 1604, a great domed octagonal hall where the grand dukes themselves are buried. At its centre was supposed to be the Holy Sepulchre itself, although attempts to buy and then steal it from Jerusalem failed.

Laurenziana Library

The Biblioteca Laurenziana, was built on to the church and its cloister (access to the Library is via the first floor of the cloister), owes its artistic importance, its architecture and its contents to the Medici family. The library was founded by Cosimo the Elder as a collection of documents and books and enlarged by Lorenzo the Magnificent. It was transferred to Rome but part of it was returned to Florence under Pope Clement VII (also a Medici), who gave orders for a building which gave the public access to the collection. Work started in 1524 to Michelangelo's designs. Despite the difficult external conditions - it had to be built on the weak foundations of a 13th century monastery - the library was consecrated in 1571. It shows that Michelangelo, who, after he left Florence in 1534, continued to take part in the building work by means of letters and models. The importance of the Biblioteca Laurenziana as a work of art is due to the three-dimensional articulation of the facade, the vestibule and the reading room, the staircases, and the confident use of all the decorative elements of Renaissance architecture. The collection of manuscripts includes important papers from Ancient Egypt and valuable manuscripts by Napoleon.

Works of Art

Bronzino (fresco of The Martyrdom of St Lawrence in the north aisle)
Desiderio da Settignano (Pala del Sacramento, tabernacle in the south aisle)
Donatello (two bronze pulpits, his last works; frieze, reliefs, tondi and bronze doors in the Sagrestia Vecchia)
Antonio del Pollaiuolo (wooden crucifix in the south transept chapel)
Fra Filippo Lippi (altarpiece of the Annunciation in the north transept chapel)
Rosso Fiorentino (Marriage of the Virgin in one of the south aisle chapels)
Verrocchio (tomb of Giovanni and Piero de Medici in the Sagrestia Vecchia)

Funerary Monuments

Bernardo Cennini (goldsmith and printer) (south transept)
Donatello (north transept)
Francesco Landini (south aisle)
Niccolo Martelli (north transept)
Cosimo de' Medici (in front of the high altar)
Cosimo I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Cosimo II de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Cosimo III de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Ferdinando I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Ferdinando II de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Ferdinando III de' Medici (crypt)
Francesco I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)
Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)
Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici (Sagrestia Nuova)
Giuliano di Piero de' Medici (Sagrestia Nuova)
Lorenzo I de' Medici (Sagrestia Nuova)
Lorenzo II de' Medici (Sagrestia Nuova)
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)

Useful information

Telephone: 055 216634
Open: 10:00 till 17:00 Monday to Saturday
Tips: Photography prohibited.

Links

Satellite image from WikiMapia

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