The second floor was devoted to offices, while the third housed one of the city's municipal grain storehouses, maintained to withstand famine or siege.

[1] As early as 1339 the main guilds had each been assigned a space between the arches to make a framed niche, with a statue of their patron saint in it.

[2] Towards the end of the 14th century, the guilds were again charged by the city to commission statues of their patron saints to embellish the facades of the church.

Inside the church is Andrea Orcagna's bejeweled Gothic Tabernacle (1355–59) encasing a repainting by Bernardo Daddi's of an older icon of the "Madonna and Child".

[3] Orsanmichele's statuary is a relic of the fierce devotion and pride of Florentine trades, and a reminder that great art often arises out of a competitive climate.