Building "The Pantheon of an Entire Nation"

By: Brooke Davidson

Behind Santa Croce's altar are many frescoes about the legend of the true cross, where the church gets its name. It makes sense that this Catholic place of worship puts such an emphasis on Jesus' passion and death on the cross.

Dizziness, hallucinations, panic attacks. A church in Florence was so beautiful that it helped coin the word for this state, Stendhal Syndrome, in 1817. A French writer, working under the pseudonym of Stendhal, felt this way while gazing at all of the art this city has to offer. This psychiatric disorder takes hundreds of tourists for a spin, figuratively and literally, every year.

This was the effect of Santa Croce, the largest Franciscan church in the world dedicated to Italy’s patron saint. Its Italian name means “holy cross.” Keeping watch over the popular Piazza di Santa Croce that has surrounded it since the Middle Ages, the grand architecture of the building had to compete with the spectacular Christian art and the tombs of famous figures that would later be held inside. The first mention of its construction was in 1212 when St. Francis of Assisi visited Florence, the site of the church then a marshy area outside the city.

Though Santa Croce is popular with tourists in Florence, it is still used daily by Florentine locals. Here, Catholic children in the community process into Sunday Mass for their First Communion.

The Santa Croce, visited by millions of tourists today, is the third church in its place after being renovated twice in the past for its continuously growing congregation. The current foundation was laid at the end of the 13th century and was designed by architect Arnolfo di Cambio. It wasn’t consecrated by the Catholic Church until more than a century later! In 1933, Santa Croce earned the official rank of Catholic Basilica.

More Architectural Background on the Santa Croce

Santa Croce’s shape was designed to look like the habit of St. Francis of Assisi. Furthermore, frescos all over its walls tell the stories of biblical heroes because its earliest congregations were illiterate in Florence. Santa Croce was dubbed the “lieu de memoire,” the Pantheon of an entire nation. This is because it was the burial site of early Franciscan friars and wealthy families, including chancellors of the Florentine republic and Florence’s favorite artist, Michelangelo. The Italian motto for the church arose from Ugo Foscolo’s poem on Santa Croce in 1807. This poet is also buried inside. The tops of these many tombs are seen as slabs on the marble floors of the basilica.

The Santa Croce was built in the Tuscan Gothic style. This was popular in the Middle Ages in Italy. This updated style sprang from a simplified Gothic one: less towers, gargoyles and buttresses were being built. For example, there are less stained-glass windows in favor of murals and frescoes in Santa Croce.

Even those who don’t have the time to peruse the ins and outs of Santa Croce can still appreciate the view from the front of the basilica, which is what Cher and Larry Squire did. These two are married Canadians, ten days in to their cruise around Europe. The Squires are spending two days in Florence before heading to their next destination, France.

Cher’s biggest question was about how these feats were accomplished with ancient tools. “The architecture is unique when you look back and think, ‘How did they do that and how did they get all the way up there?’ We have machines that will get you up high to do this work, and how did they do it back then? Scaffolding wasn’t a thing, so it’s something to think about.” To answer one of Cher's many excellent queries, Santa Croce was built with the huge workforce of peasants that had moved from the countryside to the city in the thirteenth century with simple wooden or stone tools in hand.

Cloisters of Santa Croce

Visitors can peek through the trees in Santa Croce's first cloister to see Bandinelli's sculpture. It was created by the artist back in 1556.

Elisa La Chiusa has worked at Santa Croce for only four months but has already grown to love its architecture. “I think my favorite is this cloister,” she said, pointing toward the grassy area with a sunlit statue of “God the Father” sculpted by Baccio Bandinelli in Santa Croce’s first cloister.

La Chiusa said, “It’s outside the church and when there is sun, it’s beautiful: even when there is rain, it is too!” These cloisters were designed to link the complex into one cohesive unit. It was known as the “cloister of the dead” because it was first used as a burial ground.

Santa Croce's second cloister was designed in 1453. The upper loggia of this cloister is still used by the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale to this day.

The second cloister of Santa Croce is the Brunelleschi Cloister, named after the famous architect even though it was designed years after his death. Pure stone columns surround a simple cross in the center. A great view of the Campanile Bell Tower is visible over the roofs of the upper loggia.

The Pazzi Chapel

La Chiusa also enjoys Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel, one of the most representative buildings from the Renaissance era. It is located outside that first ancient cloister. This chapel was built to be the friars’ chapter house and a family chapel for the Pazzis, a Florentine family that owned vineyards in Chianti before their conspiracy against the Medicis in 1478 led to their downfall. The building of the chapel was halted for a time after the family’s exile as well.

The Pazzi Chapel is known for its proportional relationships throughout its architecture, which Elisa La Chiusa noticed. “I like the perfection of the columns. Inside, there is also a picture of astrology signs that is beautiful.” This astrological fresco on the dome of the chapel depicts constellations from the fifteenth century.

Outside Santa Croce

The Squires made sure to see the Santa Croce in person during their short time here even though they chose to not visit the inside. “We don’t do too much walking. We sort of stay in one place until we need to go,” Mrs. Squire joked.

Getting the chance to view the ornate outside of the basilica was “just a dream come true” for Cher. “The outside is fantastic,” she said. “It gives you a good feeling when you learn how this church was built and what’s sacred within it after centuries.”

Santa Croce's front-facing facade shown here was paid for by Francis Joseph Sloane, a tutor who was taken under the wing of a wealthy Russian family in Florence. It was finished in 1863.

Polychrome marble to build Santa Croce was quarried from all over the world, ranging from Italian cities like Siena and Pisa to other continents altogether like Egypt in Africa. For Santa Croce's bell tower, only Florentine limestone was used.

Comparison to Other Churches

Larry Squire agreed that the façade of the front of the church was a spectacle to behold. “The church here is quite something,” Larry said. “We did the Vatican in Rome earlier, too: there are beautiful churches everywhere in Italy. You can’t find someplace here that doesn’t have one!”

Larry and Cher Squire stand outside Santa Croce to catch their breath. This couple's titles are actually "lord" and "lady" because their nephew bought them a tiny plot of land in northern Scotland. They have the plaques to prove it!

Further comparing it to Rome, the pair talked of how they thought this church was old with it being built hundreds of years ago, but Roman buildings have been around for thousands in comparison. With these being Catholic churches, the comparison brings to mind a verse in the Old Testament’s first book of Samuel: “Saul has killed thousands of men. David has killed tens of thousands.” Just as buildings are seen differently based on how many years the structures have been standing, kings in ancient Israel were judged in a similar way based on how many people were not left standing after battle.

As Mr. Squire mentioned, churches in Italy seem to pop up on every street corner. Yet, many cannot boast the architectural wonders that Christians and nonbelievers alike appreciate like the "pantheon of an entire nation" offers.