Firenze, Basilica di Santa Croce | The Pazzi Chapel, a splendid example of Renaissance architecture

Located on the southern flank of the great Franciscan church, the Pazzi Chapel was begun after 1442 although an agreement with Brunelleschi may have been made more than a decade earlier...the Pazzi Chapel was designed with a twelve-ribbed hemispherical dome on pendentives above a square extended into an oblong by the addition of barrel-vaulted bays on two of its sides. In keeping with its function as a chapter house, a low bench runs along the walls of the room; opposite the entrance a smaller altar chapel, square and domed, opens from the eastern wall. Similar to the Old Sacristy, but more intricate in pattern and more decorative in effect, is the clear-cut arch and pilaster articulation of the pale stucco walls, with framed circles afloat in spaces left free in the geometric system... This small, brilliant structure represented a high point in early Renaissance style. Cerebral, rational, and serene, it was a marked contrast to the dynamics of Gothic architecture.[2]


The traditional attribution of the Pazzi Chapel to Brunelleschi is disputed by Trachtenberg. [3] As regards the interior, Trachtenberg draws attention to several discrepancies from Brunelleschi's usual practice, but these could easily be a consequence of the building's posthumous construction and the shortcomings of any previously made model.

Map of the Pazzi Chapel | Enlarge map

Entrance of Santa Croce is in Piazza Santa Croce on the left of the main entrance of the Basilica (looking at the facade).

Opening hours

From Monday to Saturday: 9:30 am until 5 pm.
Sunday and public holidays: 2 pm until 5 pm

Florence, Photo gallery

Capella Pazzi	Interno della Cappella Pazzi, Basilica di Santa Croce	Cappella Pazzi, cupoletta della scarsella, Basilica di Santa Croce


Strolling in Florence \| Walk from Ponte Vecchio to Piazzale Michelangelo Beautiful walk in one of the most authentic neighborhoods of Firenze, San Niccolò. The atmosphere of an authentic Florentine neighborhood still remains here.

Transport Timetables and routes - ATAF \| Map You can view the bus routes at the Florence transit site: www.ataf.net/en/ataf.aspx?idC=2&LN=en-US
		Bus trasport in Florence
Bibliography Mary McCarthy, The Stones of Florence, Harcourt Brace International (1998), ISBN-10: 9780156850803 - ISBN-13: 978-0156850803 Marvin Trachtenberg, Brunelleschi, Michelozzo, and the Problem of the Pazzi Chapel, Yale University Press, 2012 Marvin Trachtenberg, Why the Pazzi Chapel is Not by Brunelleschi = Perché la Cappella dei Pazzi non è di Brunelleschi, Casabella 60, no. 635 (June 1996): 58-77 \| www.academia.edu Marvin Trachtenberg, Michelozzo and the Pazzi Chapel \| Michelozzo e la Cappella dei Pazzi." Casabella 61, no. 642 (February 1997): 56-75 \| www.academia.edu Paul Goldberger, Challenge to the Origin of a Florentine Chapel, The New York Times, Jan. 1, 1997 \| \| www.nytimes.com David Hemsoll, Emulating Antiquity: Renaissance Buildings from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, Yale University Press, 5 nov. 2019
[1] Foto di Gryffindor, licenziato in base ai termini della licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 3.0 Unported [2] Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman. Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-Modernism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. ISBN 0-13-044702-1. NA200.T7. p 286-7. [3] See Marvin Trachtenberg, 'Why the Pazzi Chapel is Not by Brunelleschi', Casabella, 635 (june 1996), 58-77; and Marvin Trachtenberg, 'Michelozzo and the Pazzi Chapel', Casabella, 642 (February 1997), 56-75.
° This article incorporates material from the Wikipedia article Pazzi Chapel, published under the GNU Free Documentation License.