Piazza Santa Croce - Florence
When You book a guided tour in Florence Tours in Florence - Tuscany, with us You"ll realize  how beautiful and magic this town is.Piazza Santa Croce is one of the main squares of the historic center of Florence, and is dominated by the Basilica of Santa Croce. This area was once a real island formed by two arms of the river Arno that separate near the Piazza Beccaria. Like Piazza Santa Maria Novella, where the Dominicans preached, Piazza Santa Croce was born about a century later, to hold the throngs of faithful who listened to the sermons of the friars by the majestic church that in the meantime was born in what was the Arno Island.Â
Since the square very large and regularly shaped, in the Renaissance it became the ideal place for knightly tournaments, festivals and popular events and competitions such as football costume, which still is held each June. Here was also played the famous game of February 17, 1530, during the siege of the city. Although exhausted from lack of food, the Florentines decided not to waive the Carnival celebrations and they wanted to organize a game of football in this square, in a position that was clearly visible from enemy troops camped on the hills. In front of the church, on the left is the monument to Dante Alighieri Enrico Pazzi, marble, erected during the triumphal celebration of the five hundredth Dante (1865). Across the square is a fountain, eight century remake of Giuseppe Manetti (1816) of a Baroque fountain by Pietro Maria Bardi in 1673. Moreover many buildings are located in this square like: Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori and Palazzo dell"Antella. Among the most original buildings of the square stands the Palazzo Cocchi-Serristori, opposite the basilica, cube-shaped with an elegant facade, the result of transformations of different ages.
Book one of our guided Tour in Florence, and You"ll enjoy the unique atmosphere of this beautiful town
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