Basilica di Santa Croce
Piazza Santa Croce / Largo Bargellini
tel. +39 055 2466105
Open: weekdays 9.30 - 17.30;
Sunday and Holy Days 14.00 - 17.30.
Famedio: open 23 October at 17.00;
4 November at 14.00.
www.santacroceopera.it
Fascist Martyrs' Memorial Chapel door, 1934, ASCFi, CF 9247.
Santa Croce, raised to basilical rank in December 1933, played an important role in Florence during the twenty years of Fascist rule because a decision was taken to turn the undercroft into a "Fascist Martyrs' Memorial Chapel" in order to allow the regime's slain to rest in the Pantheon of the Italian people, a building that symbolised the national identity.
The thirty-seven bodies were solemnly interred in the chapel on 27 October 1934. Architect Alfredo Lensi later drew up plans also for the "Famedio" to commemorate the Florentines who had fallen in World War I, while in February 1938 it was decided to enlarge the chapel to honour the memory of the Florentine soldiers who had fallen "for the Empire and for Spain". The chapel was totally transformed after the war, but the Famedio still has the structure and furnishings of the 1930s.
"Scaffolding supporting vaults during removal of 13th century column" in Santa Croce undercroft, ASCFi, Firenze, 1934, 1, p. 7.
Architect Alfredo Lensi's design for the Fascist Martyrs' Memorial Chapel, 1934, ASCFi, CF 9247.
The Memorial Chapel under construction, 1934, ASCFi, CF 9247.
The Memorial Chapel under construction, 1934, ASCFi, CF 9247.
Alfredo Lensi's design for the Memorial Chapel door on Via dei Malcontenti, ASCFi, Firenze, 1934, 1, p. 8
Alfredo Lensi's design for the "Famedio" commemorating fallen combatants of World War I, ASCFi, Firenze, 1935, 6, p. 202.
Alfredo Lensi's design for the "Famedio" commemorating fallen combatants of World War I (or "Combatants' Memorial Chapel"), ASCFi, Firenze, 1935, 6, p. 203.
The new entrance and building of the "Memorial Chapel of the Fallen" on Via 28 Ottobre, now Largo Bargellini, ASCFi, Firenze, 1938, 8, p. 311.
Municipal Technical Office, Sketch for the decoration of Piazza Santa Croce to mark the Führer's visit, May 1938. ASCFi, Fondo disegni, 73/74.
Municipal Technical Office, Sketch for the decoration of Piazza Santa Croce to mark the Führer's visit, May 1938. ASCFi, Fondo disegni, 73/75.
