San Lorenzo

This church was build in 394 for the will of a noblewoman. The woman was sterile and desired to have a son. She praised San Lorenzo and became fecund. She financed the buildung of the church. The church did not underwent modification but after many years a big fire destroyed it. In 1423 Brunelleschi restored the Church and it became one of the most beautiful Church of Florence. On the portal there is Medici symbol, build by Michelangelo. The building has three aisles divided by Corinthian pilaster. The façade remained undecorated. Chapels are frescoed by the greatest Florentine artists. In Desiderio’s altar there is one of Donatello’s pulpits. In the transept there are the best works: in the left arm of the transept it is Annunciation by Filippo Lippi, in the right-hand pulpit note the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence by Agnolo Bronzino.

In the second Chapel is an altar panek of St Anthony Abbot with Saints by the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio. Here a door leads into the Sagrestia Vecchia, or Old Sacristy, built by Brunelleschi and decorated by Donatello. Then you can admire Giovanni and Piero de’ Medici’s tomb and the tomb of Verrocchio an a bust by Desiderio da Settignano.

Donatello works are: the large gold lunettes over the door, the chancel screen and the paintings of the dome. The Sagrestia Nuova, or New Sacristy, is composed by Capella dei Principi and Cappella dei Medici. In the half if 16th century Michelangelo planned this mausoleum, painted by Vasari. In 1971 some painting by Michelangelo were found in the underground of the Chapel. On the left side of the façade there is the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana commisioned by Cosimo the Elder and built by Michelangelo.