Feast of St. Reparata

St. Reparata has her own niche to the left of the main center door of the Duomo, just one indicator to her importance to Florentine religious history

Every year on October 8 Florence honors Santa Reparata, co-patron saint of the city alongside St. John the Baptist. Tradition credits her with saving Florence from a Gothic siege in 406 AD, and the city's first cathedral - whose excavated remains lie beneath the Duomo - was dedicated to her.

The legend and the history

In late 405 a Gothic army led by the pagan king Radagaisus crossed the Alps and laid siege to Roman Florentia. The city held out until the Roman general Stilicho arrived with a relief army and trapped the invaders in the hills around Fiesole. Radagaisus was captured and executed on August 23, 406.

According to legend, Reparata - a young third-century martyr from Caesarea in Palestine - was seen hovering over the city during the battle. The Florentines chose to commemorate their liberation not on the date of the victory but on her feast day, October 8, and dedicated their new cathedral to her. Italian sources, including the Comune di Firenze, usually call the invaders Ostrogoths; historians more cautiously describe Radagaisus's army as a mixed force of Goths, Vandals, and Alans.

What happens on October 8

A delegation of the Corteo Storico della Repubblica Fiorentina, in Renaissance costume, escorts the city authorities from the Palagio di Parte Guelfa along Via Porta Rossa, Piazza del Mercato Nuovo, Via Vacchereccia, and Piazza della Signoria to the Cathedral. There, in the crypt of Santa Reparata, a candle and a wreath of myrtle are offered in the saint's honor. The ceremony is short - about an hour. In 2025 the procession left at 10 a.m. and reached the Duomo at 10:25 a.m.; the 2026 schedule will be posted here once the Comune publishes it.

Here is a short video that gives an idea of what the day looks like:

Visiting the crypt

The remains of the ancient basilica are reached by a staircase in the right aisle of the Cathedral, entering through the Porta del Campanile on the south side, beside the Bell Tower. Admission requires a ticket from the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. Suitcases, backpacks, and medium or large bags must be left at the luggage storage at Piazza del Duomo 38r before you enter, or you will be turned away.

On the feast day itself the ceremony takes place in the crypt in the morning; in 2025 the Cathedral and crypt opened to the public at 11 a.m. instead of the usual time.

Below the Cathedral floor you will find the walls of Roman houses, the early Christian basilica (founded in the early fifth century and demolished in 1379) with its mosaic floor of geometric patterns, Solomon's knots, and a peacock, dozens of fourteenth-century tombstones including that of gonfaloniere Giovanni de' Medici with his sword and gilded spurs, the fragmentary fresco of Christ in Pity in the right apse, and - through a grate near the bookshop - the plain tomb slab of Filippo Brunelleschi, architect of the Dome.