| San Giovanni dei Fiorentini | |
|---|---|
Basilica di San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini | |
 The façade of San Giovanni | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| 41°53′59″N12°27′54″E / 41.8997°N 12.465°E /41.8997; 12.465 | |
| Location | Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Tradition | Latin Church |
| Website | sangiovannibattistadeifiorentini |
| History | |
| Status | minor basilica titular church regional church |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | Giacomo della Porta Jacopo Sansovino |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 1523 |
| Completed | 1734 |
| Clergy | |
| Cardinal protector | Giuseppe Petrocchi |
TheBasilica of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini ("Saint John of the Florentines") is aminor basilica and atitular church in thePonterione ofRome,Italy.
Dedicated toSt. John the Baptist, the protector ofFlorence, the new church for the Florentine community in Rome was started in the 16th century and completed in the early 18th, and is thenational church of Florence in Rome.
It was lavishly decorated with art over the 16th and 17th centuries, with most commissions going to Florentine artists.
Julius II's successor, the FlorentinePope Leo X de' Medici (1513-1521), initiated the architectural competition for a new church in 1518 on the site of the old church of San Pantaleo. Designs were put forward by a number of architects, among themBaldassare Peruzzi,Jacopo Sansovino,Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and the painter and architectRaphael. The dominant initial ideas were for a centralised church arrangement.[1]
Sansovino won the competition but the building construction was subsequently executed by Sangallo andGiacomo della Porta.[2]
In 1559,Michelangelo was asked byCosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, to prepare designs for the church and he presented a centralised church arrangement but this was not adopted.[3]
The main construction of the church was carried out in 1583-1602 under the architectGiacomo della Porta based on the Latin cross arrangement.Carlo Maderno took over from 1602 to 1620, and directed construction of the dome and the main body of the church. However, the façade, based on a design byAlessandro Galilei, was not finished until 1734.[4]
In 1623-24Giovanni Lanfranco produced paintings for the Sacchetti chapel.[5]
In 1634, the Baroque painter and architectPietro da Cortona was asked by the Florentine noblemanOrazio Falconieri to design the high altar.[6] Drawings for the altar and its setting and a model were prepared but the project was not carried out. Cortona's ideas for the choir included windows hidden from the view of the congregation that would illuminate the altarpiece, an early example of the Baroque usage of a "hidden light" source, a concept which would be much employed byBernini. Some twenty to thirty years later, Falconieri resurrected the choir project but gave the commission to the Baroque architectFrancesco Borromini, who changed the design to allow for the burial of Orazio's brother, CardinalLelio Falconieri. After Borromini's death in 1667, the work was completed and partly modified by Cortona and, on his death in 1669, byCiro Ferri, Cortona's pupil and associate.[7]
Francesco Borromini is buried under the dome.[10]
Carlo Murena, architect[11]
Carlo Maderno, architect
The church contains the relic of the left foot of St. Mary Magdalene.
Media related toChurch of San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by San Giovanni a Porta Latina | Landmarks of Rome San Giovanni dei Fiorentini | Succeeded by Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
