Two famous artworks define Santa Maria Novella. Giotto's Crucifix changed how Christ on the cross was represented for two centuries, and Masaccio's Holy Trinity is the first monumental Renaissance painting to use linear perspective. The Dominican church is considered the most important Romano-Gothic church in Tuscany and is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The façade is patterned with geometric designs in white and green marble. Its upper part was designed by the Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti and finished in 1470. Rich Florentine families financed the building and its decoration, and several of them were granted funerary chapels inside the church.
Construction began in 1290 and took almost 200 years, and the church was consecrated in 1420. The building combines Gothic and Renaissance architecture, which suits visitors interested in both periods of Florentine art and building.
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