Santa Maria Novella Florence

A discount hotel close to the Santa Maria Novella in Florence places you right by the main railway station which shares its name. It is the most important Gothic church in Tuscany. It was built in 1246 by Domenican friars, on the site of the 10th-century Dominican oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne. The two Dominican friars who designed the church were Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi. Construction began in the mid-13th century, but wasn’t finished until about 1360 under the supervision of yet another Friar, Friar Iacopo Talenti. The building of the church was financed mainly by the generosity of the most important Florentine families, which assured them of funerary chapels in the consecrated ground of the church. The building includes a Romanesque-Gothic bell tower, sacristy and several fabulous portals each a piece of art on its own.