A cathedral was built directly over Florence's first one
A cathedral built over a buried cathedral
Last reviewed 23 August 2026 · A three-minute read · 300–1530
The short answer
Florence Cathedral stands on ground layered with earlier history: Santa Reparata, the city's first cathedral, lay buried beneath its floor as the new Duomo rose between 1296 and 1436. Nearby, the Baptistery holds a deposed antipope's tomb, and streets to the southwest saw the 1529–1530 siege that ended the Florentine Republic and restored Medici rule.
1436
The Duomo rose over Florence's first cathedral
You are standing steps from Florence Cathedral, its marble skin striped green and pink. Building started in 1296 and dragged on for over a century. The dome, engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi, wasn't finished until 1436. Inside, near the entrance, you'd pass a fresco of an English mercenary painted to look like a bronze statue on horseback — Sir John Hawkwood, a soldier for hire who fought Florence's wars and got a hero's memorial for it.
Below the marble floor lies the real secret of this spot. The current Duomo was raised over Santa Reparata, Florence's first cathedral, standing here since at least the early medieval period. Workers dismantled it gradually as the new building grew around and over it, so for decades the city had two cathedrals stacked on the same ground. A short walk toward the thirty metres square puts you at the heart of the whole complex — cathedral, bell tower, and baptistery all within sight of each other.
The cathedral you see today was built directly over an older one, torn down piece by piece as the new walls rose.
1419
A deposed pope was buried beside the Baptistery
A short walk from the cathedral doors, inside the Baptistery, stands the tomb of a disgraced pope. Baldassare Cossa ruled as Antipope John XXIII until the church split known as the Great Schism forced him out. He died in Florence in 1419, and Donatello and Michelozzo built his monument soon after. Historians call it the last papal tomb built outside Rome, and a strange honor for a man the church stripped of the title.
Older and darker ground lies further off. Near the Uffizi Gallery, a short walk south, diggers once found around sixty skeletons packed head to feet. Children's bodies lay wedged between adults. Archaeologists believe it was a mass grave from a plague outbreak in the fifth or sixth century AD, when there was no time for proper burial. short walk south
To the south, near Porta Romana, a much older parish church once stood watch over the city gate. San Pier Gattolino had served the area since at least 1068. When Cosimo I expanded Florence's walls in the 16th century, workers tore it down to make room for the new defenses. Its name survives only in old maps and records now.
1419
A siege ended the Florentine Republic nearby
ninety metres The octagonal Baptistery stands just off the cathedral, dedicated to John the Baptist. Florentines were baptized here in mass ceremonies twice a year, on Holy Saturday and Pentecost. Dante himself was baptized in this building.
A little further west, Palazzo Bezzoli sits at the corner of Via dei Cerretani and Piazza dell'Olio. Italy's fine arts authority listed it in 1901 as a building of national artistic value.
Two streets southwest, armies once camped for a siege that nearly ended Florence's republic. The Siege of Florence in 1529–1530 saw imperial and papal troops surround the city for months before it fell. The siege closed out the last years of the Florentine Republic and opened the door to Medici rule returning for good.
North of the Duomo, the church and college of San Giovannino degli Scolopi took shape after Cosimo I gave land to the newly arrived Jesuits. Construction dragged through several architects before it was finished.
59
Roman streets still shape the modern center
Florence began as a Roman colony, planted where the Arno narrows enough to bridge. A short walk south of the Duomo, the old Roman Forum once anchored the grid of streets that still shapes the center today. Nearby, a Temple of Isis once stood, evidence of how far Roman religious life traveled from Egypt.
UNESCO named the whole historic center a World Heritage Site in 1982, citing six centuries of art built on the wealth of the Medici bankers. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Botticelli and others left work scattered across churches and palaces within a few streets of where you stand.
Underneath all of it lies limestone laid down in shallow Cretaceous seas, tens of millions of years old. It is not the reason for Florence's beauty — the marble on the cathedral's face was quarried far off, in the mountains near Carrara — but it is the quiet floor beneath every layer of the city's history.
Open this place in Strata
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and it will dig the ground you are standing on instead, wherever that is.
Around sixty skeletons, tightly packed and including children wedged among adults, were unearthed near the Uffizi from a fifth or sixth-century plague burial.
The octagonal Baptistery of San Giovanni, dedicated to the city's patron saint, was where Florentine infants were baptized in mass ceremonies on Holy Saturday and Pentecost.
Baldassare Cossa, deposed as Antipope John XXIII, was given an elaborate marble-and-bronze tomb by Donatello after his death in 1419, one of the last papal tombs built outside Rome.
A ground-floor workshop of the Palazzo Naldini, on the corner of Piazza del Duomo, is where Donatello once worked, a fact still marked by a plaque and bust today.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Palazzo Naldini
1436
Inside the cathedral, a 1436 fresco by Paolo Uccello commemorates John Hawkwood, an English soldier-for-hire hired out as Florentine propaganda after his death.
The Farmacia del Moro, facing the Baptistery, dated to before the 1500s and later became a meeting place for humanist scholars under Anton Francesco Grazzini.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Farmacia del Moro, Florence
1456
Andrea del Castagno painted a matching fresco of the condottiero Niccolò da Tolentino on the cathedral's left wall in 1456.
In 1982 UNESCO named the historic centre of Florence, built on the site of an Etruscan settlement, a World Heritage Site.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Historic Centre of Florence
Questions about this place
Answered in one sentence, then in full above
What was here before Florence Cathedral?
Santa Reparata, Florence's earlier cathedral, stood on the same ground and was dismantled gradually as the new Duomo grew around and over it, meaning the city had two cathedrals stacked on one site for decades.
What happened at the Siege of Florence?
Imperial and papal troops surrounded Florence for months in 1529–1530 before the city fell, ending the last Florentine Republic and restoring Medici rule for good.
Who is buried in the Florence Baptistery?
Baldassare Cossa, deposed as Antipope John XXIII during the Great Schism, was buried there in 1419 beneath an elaborate tomb built by Donatello and Michelozzo, called the last papal tomb built outside Rome.
Why is there a fresco of an English soldier inside the Duomo?
A 1436 fresco by Paolo Uccello commemorates John Hawkwood, an English mercenary who fought for Florence, painted to resemble a bronze equestrian statue as a form of civic propaganda after his death.
What was found near the Uffizi Gallery?
Around sixty skeletons packed head to feet, including children wedged among adults, were unearthed there, believed to be a mass grave from a plague outbreak in the fifth or sixth century AD.
Where was Dante baptized?
Dante was baptized in the octagonal Baptistery of San Giovanni next to Florence Cathedral, where Florentines were baptized in mass ceremonies on Holy Saturday and Pentecost.