Piazza Santo Spirito
Sunlit square fronting an Augustinian basilica, ringed by cafes and a monthly artisan market.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence follows a teenage Michelangelo Buonarroti, newly without his patron Lorenzo de' Medici, taken in by the Augustinian friars whose monastery behind the basilica ran a hospital for the poor. It covers the extraordinary offer the prior made him and the wooden crucifix he carved for the high altar in thanks, plus the centuries the piece spent unrecognized before scholars traced it back to him. Step into the basilica's octagonal sacristy to see where it hangs today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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