Ognissanti Church

Baroque church with Ghirlandaio's Last Supper fresco in the refectory and a Botticelli painting of St Augustine

Address Borgo Ognissanti 42, Florence

Ognissanti (All Saints) is a Baroque church on the Arno embankment, built for the Umiliati monastic order in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 17th. The façade, completed in 1637, was one of the first Baroque façades in Florence. Amerigo Vespucci was baptised here, and his family tomb is inside — Ghirlandaio's fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia (1472) shows the young Amerigo among the Vespucci family members sheltered under the Virgin's cloak.

The main reason to seek out Ognissanti is the refectory, entered through the cloister on the left of the church. Ghirlandaio's Last Supper (1480) covers an entire wall — a spacious, sunlit composition far more accessible than Leonardo's more famous version in Milan. Botticelli's Saint Augustine is also here, hanging across from Ghirlandaio's Saint Jerome. Both Botticelli and Ghirlandaio are buried in the church. The refectory is open to visitors on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday mornings.

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