The Franciscans arrived in Florence in the 13th century and built a church large enough to hold the entire city.
Michelangelo is buried here, and Galileo, and Machiavelli, and Ghiberti, and Rossini.
The side chapels were financed by the great merchant families — the Bardi, the Peruzzi — and decorated by Giotto in the early 14th century.
His frescoes in the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels are among the most important surviving works of medieval painting.
Fun fact: when Stendhal visited Santa Croce in 1817 and contemplated Giotto's frescoes, he became so overwhelmed he felt faint and had to sit down.
'Stendhal Syndrome' — being incapacitated by the density of great art — was formally named and documented in Florence in 1979.
It continues to be reported in this city more than anywhere else in the world.
