Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

Lonely Planet review

This Gothic church, completed by the Dominicans in the 14th century, contains a handful of important works including a seminal fresco by the young Masaccio, which incorporated the emerging values of painting, sculpture and architecture and which is a defining moment in the Renaissance.

The beautiful facade of the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella was completed in stages in the 14th and 15th centuries and combines Romanesque on the lower level and Renaissance above. The Gothic interior was designed by monks from the Dominican order - keen participants in the Inquisition and a group fond of a little self-flagellation - and is suitably sombre.

Opposite the entrance is Masaccio's recently restored Trinity , the first instance where Brunelleschi's mathematical rules of perspective were applied to a painting, while suspended dramatically above the nave behind you is the otherworldly Crucifix (1300) by Giotto.

Immediately to the right of the choir, the Cappella di Filippo Strozzi (1502) features some of Filippino Lippi's finest work, while the Cappella Gondi, to the left, contains Brunelleschi's Crucifix sans genitalia or loincloth. His only surviving wooden sculpture was created in response to the despised naturalism of Donatello's version in Santa Croce.