Complesso di San Firenze, Florence, Italy
The Complesso di San Firenze (Complex of San Firenze) is a 17th-century Baroque-style building, consisting of a church, palace, and former oratory, located on the southeast corner of the saucer-shaped piazza of San Firenze, located in the quartiere of Santa Croce in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The buildings were commissioned by the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri.
View of Piazza San Firenze, prior to construction of the Oratorian complex.
Prior to the 17th-century, paintings of the Piazza depict a drab 12th-century Romanesque brick church of San Florenzio hemmed by tall medieval houses. The Oratorians acquired the church in the 1640s, and commissioned plans from Pier Francesco Silvani to construct an oratory. Construction began in 1645 with the attendance of the Grand-Duke and of the Cardinal Giancarlo de’ Medici.
Once the oratory was complete in 1648, the Oratorians received a further endowment from the son of Senator Giuliano de’ Serragli, who commissioned an additional church from the Baroque architect Pietro da Cortona. The design of Cortona with two parallel flanking rectangular facades called for the acquisition of other buildings in the square.
The plan was reformulated over time, and by 1715 construction of the new church facade was completed by Ferdinando Ruggieri. The matching oratory facade was built from 1772 to 1775 by Zanobi Del Rosso. Others involved in the designs and construction were Gioacchino Fortini and Filippo Ciocchi.
This led to the present nearly symmetric arrangement of the church on the north wing, the former seminary and housing in the center, and the oratory on the south wing. In 1848, the church was rededicated to the Immaculate Conception and Phillip Neri.
The Seminary has undergone a number of transitions, ebbing with the fortunes of the founding order. The Oratorian seminary was suppressed transiently in 1769, re-suppressed in 1808, but again returned to the order in 1814. By 1866, when Florence had been chosen the capital of Italy, the building was requisitioned by the state for office space. Restructuring and expansion of the seminary was conducted by Marco Treves and Paolo Comotto.
The entire building suffered damage during the 1966 floods. In 2015, it housed civil courts of Florence, but was used for other functions. The Oratory is used for events and concerts, while the church retains its original function.
