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The Basilica of Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church of Florence and is considered to be the most beautiful Italian Gothic church. The church was begun in 1295 by architect Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed in 1442. Inside the church, spacious and airy, has three aisles, the nave is 19 meters wide and has a wooden ceiling. The facade of the Basilica was added in the nineteenth century and is decorated with marbles of different colors arranged to compose geometric designs with with beautiful effects.

The Basilica is also famous because it houses numerous tombs of famous men, indeed along its walls are tombs and funerary monuments, while on the floor there are 276 gravestones.

Among the graves are those of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Galileo Galilei, Ugo Foscolo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Gioacchino Rossini, Leon Battista Alberti, Vittorio Alfieri, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Carlo Marsuppini, Vittorio Fossombroni.

Santa Croce also houses valuable works of art by Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Giorgio Vasari, Donatello, Bernardo Rossellino, Andrea della Robbia and modern artists such as Libero Andreotti, Antonio Berti, Pietro Parigi.

The various chapels are decorated with works of art by Giotto and della Robbia, while Brunelleschi designed the cloisters.  In the cloister next to the church is the Cappella de 'Pazzi, by Filippo Brunelleschi, a masterwork of Renaissance architecture.

The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce houses a crucifix by Cimabue, now partially restored after the severe damage suffered during the flood of 1966.