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Similar Santa Maria degli Angiolini, Santa Maria Maddale, San Michele Visdomini, San Remigio - Florence, San Salvatore al Vescovo | ||
Santa Maria dei Candeli is a former Roman Catholic church situated in the Borgo Pinti in central Florence.
History
Initially founded in 13–14th centuries as a convent; the present structure was enlarged starting 1558, with a radical rebuilding in 1703 by the Baroque artist Giovanni Battista Foggini. The ceiling is frescoed with the Assumption by Niccolò Lapi, the right wall houses a St. Clair by Francesco Botti and a St. Augustine by Jacopo Vignali. The main altarpiece is an Immaculate Conception by Carlo Sacconi, flanked by a Transit with St. Joseph by Tommaso Redi.
The monastic order was suppressed by the Napoleonic occupation, and became successively an orphanage, an asylum, and finally a lyceum for training policemen. Renaissance frescoes detached from the refectory depict a Last Supper, Annunciation, and Adoration of the Bambino, formerly attributed to Franciabigio, but which some now attribute to Giovanni Antonio Sogliani.