San Giovanni dei Fiorentini
| San Giovanni dei Fiorentini | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Basic information | |
| Location |
 Rome, Italy
|
| Geographic coordinates | Coordinates: 41°53′59″N 12°27′54″E / 41.899697°N 12.465022°E |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| District | Rione Ponte, Rome |
| Leadership | Carlo Caffarra |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Giacomo della Porta |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Architectural style | Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 1523 |
| Completed | 1734 |
San Giovanni dei Fiorentini is a minor basilica and a titular church in the Ponte rione of Rome, Italy.
Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the protector of Florence, the new church for the Florentine community in Rome was started in the 16th century and completed in early 18th and is the national church of Florence in Rome.
The main façade fronts onto the Via Giulia. This straight street was an urban initiative, carried out in 1508 by the architect Donato Bramante at the instigation of Pope Julius II, which cut through the irregular urban fabric to the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the bridge which crosses over the Tiber River to the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica.
Julius II's successor, the Florentine Pope Leo X de' Medici (1513-1521) initiated the architectural competition for a new church in 1518 on the site of the old church of San Pantaleo. Designs were put forward by a number of architects, among them Baldassare Peruzzi, Jacopo Sansovino, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and the painter and architect Raphael. The dominant initial ideas were for a centralised church arrangement.
Sansovino won the competition but the building construction was subsequently executed by Sangallo and Giacomo della Porta.
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