Basilica of the Holy Cross

Santa Croce is Italy's principal Franciscan basilica, founded in 1294 on a site that legend attributes to Francis of Assisi himself. Its interior, shaped by the austere simplicity typical of mendicant church architecture, holds a remarkable concentration of Renaissance funerary monuments: Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Gioachino Rossini are all buried here, earning the church its 19th-century epithet as the 'Pantheon of Florence'. The Bardi and Peruzzi chapels contain fresco cycles by Giotto that art historians regard as a turning point in Western painting. The adjoining cloister, framed by a serene loggia attributed to Filippo Brunelleschi, offers a contemplative counterpoint to the bustling piazza outside.