The church of Santa Felicita
The church of Santa Felicita stands on Piazza Santa Felicita, which you can reach from the Duomo (cathedral) by taking Via Roma and the streets that continue it, Via Calimala and Via Por Santa Maria. Cross the Ponte Vecchio to reach Piazza Santa Felicita and the church of the same name.
Address: Piazza Santa Felicita
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 9:30–12:30 and 15:30–17:30. Closed on Sunday and public holidays.
Admission: free
The church, erected in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 14th century, was part of a convent of Benedictine nuns.
The present church dates essentially from the 18th century. The gallery above the portico is a section of the Vasari Corridor (it is the protected passage the Medici took to reach Palazzo Pitti from Palazzo Vecchio). A window allowed the Medici to hear Mass without being seen from the nave.
In the church is the Capponi chapel, designed by Brunelleschi. The painter Pontormo, who worked there from 1525 to 1528, painted an extraordinary Deposition of Christ. The dead Christ is carried and surrounded by figures in luminous garments, in unusual tones – mauve – green – pink – gray-blue and orange-yellow. It is a masterpiece of Mannerism – the period between the Renaissance and the Baroque. He also painted the four Evangelists in the pendentives of the vault.
