The Badia Fiorentina stands on Via del Proconsolo in central Florence. Willa, Countess of Tuscany, founded it in 978 as a Benedictine abbey in memory of her husband Hubert. Between 1284 and 1310 the Romanesque church was rebuilt in the Gothic style by Arnolfo di Cambio, and the campanile was completed between 1310 and 1330. Its Romanesque base carries Gothic upper stages.
In 1373 Boccaccio gave lectures on Dante's Divine Comedy in the church. The interior was given a Baroque transformation between 1627 and 1631, and the renovation hid medieval frescoes behind a new wall. Three frescoes were uncovered in 1958. The church holds Filippino Lippi's Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard, painted around 1486, and tombs by Mino da Fiesole. Giotto's Badia Polyptych, now in the Uffizi, was made for it.
Today the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem live here, and vespers are held daily at 6 pm.
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