THE CHURCH
OF SANTO SPIRITO
| Church
After the victory over the Duke of Milan on August 28th
1397, the feast day of St. Augustine, the town decided
to build a new and beautiful Church for the Augustinian
monks, in order to commemorate the victory. The building
soon became the symbol of the whole community of Oltrarno
and was financed by the Comune of Florence. Despite this
ordinance, for 37 years the Church only had minor repairs.
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| The resolution
became executive only in 1434, when the project was entrusted
to Filippo Brunelleschi. The new Church was to be built
in the present location. However Brunelleschi suggested
changing the orientation of the facade towards the river.
By demolishing the houses between Via Santo Spirito -
which at the time was called Il Fondaccio - and the Arno,
the square would from have overlooked the river "so that
everyone coming to Florence from Genoa would have seen
the facade along the river", to quote Antonio Manetti,
Brunelleschi's biographer. Visitors entering the town
from Porta San Frediano and walking towards the New Bridge
(Ponte alla Carraia), would have crossed the dark and
narrow Fondaccio to unexpectedly find themselves facing
a large square with a Church in the most populated district
of the town. However Brunelleschi's project was opposed
by the Frescobaldi and Capponi families, who did not want
their properties - situated in Via dei Coverelli (originally
called Via del Chiasso Perduto) and in the Fondaccio -
to be demolished. The first extraordinary novelty of Brunelleschi's
project was thus rejected and the Church had to be built
with the orientation we see today. The job was given to
Brunelleschi in 1428, though the work started with great
delay and progressed very slowly, After the architect's
death in 1446 the initial project was greatly changed
to such a degree that it altered the original layout of
the building. In the sixties, the 38 chapels in the form
of niches, that were designed to give movement to the
outside of the building, were hidden by a plain wall.
Besides radically altering the profile of the Church,
this enclosure raised the eaves and changed the distribution
of the loads on the four large arches that should have
supported the dome, and so it was changed while it was
being built. In the eighties the project of the facade
was also altered. Brunelleschi had originally planned
four entrance doors that were replaced, after a long debate,
by three. The facade remained for a long time unfinished
and the stone structure was covered with plaster only
in the 18" century. |
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