The church of San Felice is a Catholic place of worship located in Piazza San Felice in Florence, in the Oltrarno district.
Documented as early as 1066, it has a typically Gothic interior and a
Renaissance facade attributed to Michelozzo. In 1153 it passed under the
control of the Benedictines of the monastery of San Silvestro di
Nonantola, who decided to expand it towards the middle of the 14th
century: the five single-lancet windows with pointed arches still
visible on the external wall of the church date back to that period. The
frescoed lunette of the sixth altar on the left dates back to this
period, attributed to the Master of the Bargello, depicting the Madonna
and Child, Saints Jacopo Maggiore, Silvestro Papa and the Abbot of
Nonantola (about 1365). The presence of the prestigious Benedictine
abbot as client gives great importance to the fresco as well as artistic
and historical.
Also from this period dates the crucifix on the
main altar by the Giotto school (about 1308).
After passing to
the Camaldolese in about 1413, the church underwent a new restoration
which kept the fourteenth-century structure substantially unchanged. On
the other hand, the fifteenth-century modifications attributed to
Michelozzo are more relevant, with the reconstruction of the apse
chapels, in particular the central one with the great triumphal arch
inspired by Brunelleschi's prototypes, and the façade built between 1457
and 1460. The coat of arms above the portal recalls the client Mariotto
Lippi. In the same period a new internal decoration of the church was
also provided, traced the plasters, entrusted mostly to the painter Neri
di Bicci of which today only the triptych with the Saints Agostino,
Giovanni Battista, Giuliano and Sigismondo (1467) remains, on the sixth
altar on the left. The frescoes, on the other hand, were executed by one
of his pupils, the so-called Maestro di Signa, perhaps identifiable with
Antonio di Maso, of whom one can admire a San Bernardino and Angels,
Blessed Gerardo with shepherd and Saints Ivo and Ansano with donor on
the counter-façade (1470 -80).
In 1557 the cloistered Dominican
nuns from the monastery of San Pietro Martire in via dei Serragli moved
to San Felice, which was demolished to strengthen the wall
fortifications in that area. In order to adapt the church to their
needs, a sacristy and above all a raised choir was built along the
entire first half of the church, supported by eight columns with cross
vaults (completed in 1590), which served to create a private space
inaccessible to the faithful to assist to Mass and observe the
obligations of the cloister.
On the left of the façade opens the
door of the ancient convent of San Pier Martire which in the 18th
century also housed a Conservatory intended to house poor girls and in
1780 opened a free boarding school for poor young girls from the
Oltrarno area, an activity which it maintained even after the Napoleonic
suppression of 1808. Today it houses a nursery and primary school.
After a fire in 1926 the church was restored. In the refectory there
is a large Last Supper by Matteo Rosselli (1614).
During the
Second World War and the German occupation, the Church of San Felice in
Piazza became one of the most active centers of the resistance in the
Oltrarno and for the protection of persecuted Jews. The parish priest of
the time, Don Bruno Panerai offered hospitality to the subcommittee for
the liberation of the Oltrarno and promoted numerous assistance
initiatives for the population and displaced persons. "A foreign Jew
named Habermann" was hidden for about six months in a room annexed to
the parish archives, while other Jews were hosted by families of the
parish, receiving periodic visits from the parish priest.
On the side altars:
Sant'Antonio Abate, San Rocco and Santa
Caterina d'Alessandria table attributed to the school of Botticelli
(1480) in the first altar on the left.
Apparition of the Madonna to
San Giacinto and San Pietro Martire dell'Empoli, signed and dated 1595
in the fifth altar on the left.
Madonna and Child attributed to
Starnina (1409-13), in the chapel at the head of the left aisle.
Polychrome terracotta deposition attributed to Fra Ambrogio della Robbia
(about 1510) in the fifth altar on the right.
Madonna and saints by
Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (1520) in the sixth altar on the right.
Madonna della Cintola and Saints fresco by Bicci di Lorenzo in the
seventh altar of the right aisle.
In the side chapels (created in the
seventeenth century) there are paintings by Salvator Rosa (fifth altar
on the left), Jacopo Chiavistelli (second altar on the left), Ottavio
Vannini (after the fourth altar on the right), Valerio Marucelli (fourth
altar on the left) and a fresco by Giovanni da San Giovanni, completed
by Volterrano, San Felice helping San Massimo in the seventh altar on
the left.
Near the high altar is a copy of Michelangelo's Madonna of
Bruges.
In the church and its annexes, some brotherhoods met over time. Among the most important was the Compagnia di San Rocco.