San Lorenzo

The dome of the Medici Chapels, behind San Lorenzo. This shot gives an idea the scale of the chapels interior

There has been a church on the site of San Lorenzo since 393, making it one of the oldest churches in Florence. The church as it appears now, however, is the result of a renovation begun in 1421 by Giovanni di Bicci de'Medici, who commissioned a new design for the church from Filippo Brunelleschi. This began a relationship between the Medici family and San Lorenzo that lasted for more than a century. The family lavished money on the church with a variety of projects, including the Medici Chapels.

The piazza in front of the church is dominated by a seated marble statue of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, Cosimo I's father, carved by Baccio Bandinelli starting in 1540. The unusual seated pose, rather than the equestrian or standing stance typical of Renaissance condottiere monuments, is a leftover of the statue's original purpose: it was meant to fit inside a chapel niche in the Basilica, not stand alone in the open. It didn't reach its current base until 1850, and the base itself was fitted with a small lion-mask fountain in 1812, once used to water horses and mules on market days.

Baccio Bandinelli's seated marble statue of Giovanni delle Bande Nere in Piazza San Lorenzo, carved from 1540 and finally placed on its decorated base in 1850.

Despite its unfinished façade, the interior of San Lorenzo is a masterpiece of Renaissance rationality and moderation. An essay in gray and white, its pietra serena columns and archways contrast with the lightness of the walls and windows, making the architecture of the church extremely legible. The entire church is suffused by an even and harmonious light adding to the sense of elegance and simplicity.

To the left of the central apse you can enter the Old Sacristy (Sagrestia Vecchia), also designed by Brunelleschi and finished in 1428. This cubic room topped with a hemispherical dome is a wonderful example of early Renaissance preoccupation with proportion and geometry. The cohesive sculptural decoration in the room was for the most part executed by Donatello, including the red and blue frieze of putti and the polychrome stucco roundels depicting the Four Evangelists. In the center of the room, beneath a marble table, is the tomb of Giovanni di Bicci and his wife Piccarda Bueri, while the remains of Cosimo il Vecchio's children, Giovanni and Piero are housed in a porphyry and bronze sarcophagus set into the wall.

San Lorenzo houses several treasures of Renaissance painting and sculpture. Donatello's last works, two bronze pulpits from around 1460, are located on either side of the central crossing of the church. A wonderful Annunciation by Filippo Lippi is tucked away in the Martelli Chapel, located to the right of the Old Sacristy. The Martelli chapel also houses a sarcophagus by Donatello and a nineteenth-century monument marking the sculptor's burial place. Other significant paintings include Rosso Fiorentino's 1523 Marriage of the Virgin and Bronzino's Martyrdom of St. Lawrence of 1565-69.

A single ticket to the Basilica complex covers the church, the Old Sacristy, the cloisters, the Treasury Museum, the crypt, and the monumental underground rooms. It does not cover two adjoining Medici landmarks that visitors often assume are included: Michelangelo's Laurentian Library, reached from the same cloister, and the Medici Chapels, entered separately around the back of the basilica. Each requires its own ticket and runs on its own hours. Photography without flash or tripod is permitted inside the Basilica. Those attending Mass or another service enter without charge through the church's own entrance.