Basilica di San Lorenzo

It is said of Florence that this city is something like "a splendid store of history". This is true, because crowned and uncrowned heads have left their impressive traces on both banks of the Arno over the centuries. The testimonies of their time can be admired in museums but also in the magnificent churches. The Basilica of San Lorenzo della Firenze is undoubtedly one of them, with origins that go back to Roman times. But this church owes its splendour and lavish decoration to the fact that the Basilica was the parish church of the Medici family. For a long time, this family was the wealthiest and most powerful of all dynasties in Florence. And many an offspring of the Medici was baptized with the name Lorenzo.

The plans of the Medici family

The Basilica di San Lorenzo marks the central point of Florence's market district. The Medici family had undertaken the construction of this church in the early 15th century and had already made plans for a Gothic-style interior. Filippo Brunelleschi was entrusted with the execution. The son of a Florentine notary, he was not a trained architect, but by 1419 he had gained a reputation as a master builder of genius. After all, he had been commissioned to build the mighty dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. For the Medici family it was obviously an honour to have won Brunelleschi for the construction of the Basilica.

A Basilica in the Renaissance Style

But the Medici did not find Filippo Brunelleschi's ears open with their plans. Tuscan Romanticism, combined with knowledge of important mathematical facts, was the model for him in the design of a mighty church. According to the ideas of the clients, the existing church of San Lorenzo was originally only to be enlarged, but Brunelleschi decided against Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the progenitor of the influential family. The result was a basilica that had all the characteristics of ecclesiastical architecture in the Renaissance period.

Only the façade remained unfinished

Thanks to enormous sums of money, the Basilica di San Lorenzo finally took shape, but the Medici family apparently did not manage to finance the façade as well. This was despite the fact that none other than Michelangelo drew up a design that visitors can still see today in the form of a model. Thus the building remained unfinished. Brunelleschi did not live to see the completion of the nave either - his pupil Antonio Manetti continued his work. Almost a hundred years after the inauguration of the Basilica, Michelangelo was commissioned to build a library and a staircase in the entrance hall.

The Medici's final resting place

Michelangelo's library housed a number of historical manuscripts. It served the Medici family as a kind of "treasury" of valuable collections. Among them were the Codes Amiatinus and the oldest of all Roman encyclopedias, the Naturalis Historia. As early as 1571, the library was opened to the public in Florence. It is said of the Basilica di San Lorenzo that there is hardly a stone in this place of worship that does not commemorate one of the many members of the Medici family. In the crypt and in various chapels as well as in the large mausoleum many Medici found their last resting place.

The starry sky in the sacristy

The departure from the church structure of the Middle Ages is particularly visible in the interior of the Basilica. The altar vault in the Old Sacristy is worth seeing. It represents the starry sky and positions the sun, the moon and the planets very precisely. The legendary Italian astronomer and cartographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who pioneered the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, was involved in this work. The cloister of the Basilica was built in 1462 by the architect Antonio Manetti and is surrounded by a French garden with hedges and pomegranates.