The lower half went up in the 1300s; Alberti finished the top in the 1460s and invented the great scrolls on either side to reconcile the two, which architects have been copying ever since.
Inside is Masaccio's Trinity — the first painting to use single-point perspective properly, so convincingly that people thought the wall had a hole in it. Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle behind the high altar is full of Florentine faces of the 1480s, including his apprentice Michelangelo's contemporaries.
The Green Cloister and the Spanish Chapel alongside are quieter than the church and worth the extra few minutes.
⭐ Two minutes from the main station, which makes it the right first or last stop of a trip.
Santa Maria Novella in pictures
