The Story of the True Cross

This itinerary admits visitors to the Chancel Chapel with its superb cycle of frescoes narrating the Story of the True Cross. Taking his inspiration from Jacobus de Voragine’s “Golden Legend” Agnolo Gaddi frescoed the ancient story of the wood of Christ’s Cross on the chapel’s walls between 1388 and 1390. This masterpiece of medieval Florentine painting was to serve as an inescapable model for painters such as Piero della Francesca who were commissioned to illustrate elsewhere this story that is of such major importance for Christians, but above all for the Franciscans who dedicated their basilica to the Holy Cross.