Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station.

Building began in the mid-13th century (about 1276), and lasted 80 years,[1] ending under the supervision of Friar Iacopo Talenti with the completion of the Romanesque-Gothic bell tower and sacristy.

Alberti attempted to bring the ideals of humanist architecture, proportion and classically inspired detailing to bear on the design, while also creating harmony with the already existing medieval part of the façade.

[2] His contribution consists of a broad frieze decorated with squares, and the full upper part, including the four white-green pilasters and a round window, crowned by a pediment with the Dominican solar emblem, and flanked on both sides by enormous S-curved volutes.

[2] The frieze below the pediment carries the name of the patron: Iohan(n)es Oricellarius Pau(li) f(ilius) An(no) Sal(utis) MCCCCLXX ('Giovanni Rucellai son of Paolo in the year of salvation 1470').

The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as an Egyptian cross (T-shaped) and is divided into a nave, two aisles set with windows and a short transept.

The one at the west end, a depiction of the Coronation of Mary, dates from the 14th century, and is based on a design of Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze.

The pulpit, commissioned by the Rucellai family in 1443, was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and executed by his adopted son Andrea Cavalcanti.

[3] The Holy Trinity, situated almost halfway along the left aisle, is a pioneering early Renaissance work of Masaccio, showing his new ideas about perspective and mathematical proportions.

The chancel (or the Cappella Tornabuoni) contains series of famous frescoes painted from 1485 to 1490 by Domenico Ghirlandaio whose apprentice was the young Michelangelo.

This chapel, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo, is situated on the left side of the main altar and dates from the end of the 13th century.

The panel on the left wall, the Martyrdom of St Catherine, was painted by Giuliano Bugiardini (possibly with assistance from Michelangelo).

The Madonna del Rosario on the altar is by Giorgio Vasari (1568) The sacristy, at the end of the left aisle, was built as the Chapel of the Annunciation by the Cavalcanti family in 1380.

It houses, after a recent period of fourteen years of cleaning and renovation, the enormous painted Crucifix with the Madonna and John the Evangelist, an early work by Giotto.

The large Gothic window with three mullions at the back wall dates from 1386 and was based on cartoons by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini The Spanish Chapel (or Cappellone degli Spagnoli) is the former chapter house of the convent.

It is especially interesting because in the background it shows a large pink building that some think may provide some insight into the original designs for Florence Cathedral by Arnolfo di Cambio (before Brunelleschi's dome was built).

The five-panelled Gothic polyptych that was probably originally made for the chapel's altar, depicting the Madonna Enthroned with Child and Four Saints by Bernardo Daddi dates from 1344 and is currently on display in a small museum area reached ed through glass doors from the far end of the cloister.

Together, the complex iconography of the ceiling vault, walls, and altar combine to communicate the message of Dominicans as guides to salvation.

Rectangular in shape, towards the west it has a scarsella containing the altar and a marble crucifix by Domenico Pieratti from the early seventeenth century, donated in 1731 by Gian Gastone de' Medici.

Vasari was the architect, commissioned in 1567 by Grand Duke Cosimo I, for the first remodelling of the church, which included removing its original rood screen and loft, and adding six chapels between the columns.

By demonstrating his studies in Rome to Pope Gregory XIII, he helped obtain the realignment of the date of Easter and the promulgation of the new Gregorian calendar.

[citation needed] Danti also placed a hole in the south facing circular window at a height of 21.35 metres (70 ft) and installed a meridian line on the floor of the church as a better method of determining the equinoxes than the armilliary sphere.