The Medici-backed rebuilding of San Lorenzo begins, with Filippo Brunelleschi introducing a new, classically ordered architectural language that became foundational for Florentine Renaissance church design.
Work starts on the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital). Its loggia of round arches on slender columns helped define an early Florentine Renaissance civic façade type based on modular proportion and classical vocabulary.
Building begins on Brunelleschi’s dome for Santa Maria del Fiore. Its innovative engineering (including a double shell and sophisticated construction methods) made it a defining achievement of Florentine Renaissance architecture.
Construction begins on the Sagrestia Vecchia (Old Sacristy) at San Lorenzo, a landmark centralized space using clear geometric ratios (square and circle) and pietra serena articulation—an influential model for later Florentine interiors.
Funds are assembled for the Pazzi Chapel at Santa Croce (commissioned by Andrea de’ Pazzi). The project would become one of Florence’s key early-Renaissance chapel designs, associated with Brunelleschi’s planning principles.
The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore is completed and the cathedral is consecrated. The finished cupola immediately reshaped Florence’s skyline and set a benchmark for Renaissance architectural ambition and technical prowess.
Building work begins on the Pazzi Chapel in the first cloister of Santa Croce. Its proportional clarity and restrained classical detail helped codify the Florentine Renaissance chapel idiom.
Michelozzo begins the Palazzo Medici for Cosimo de’ Medici. Its disciplined façade hierarchy and rusticated masonry established a highly influential model for the Florentine Renaissance urban palazzo.
Ground is broken for the new Basilica of Santo Spirito, based on Brunelleschi’s design. The church became a major statement of Florentine Renaissance spatial order, with a highly regularized plan and modular interior rhythm.
The Foundling Hospital (Ospedale degli Innocenti) officially opens. Its long-running construction history underscores how Brunelleschi’s early innovations were adapted and extended across decades in Florence’s civic building culture.
The Palazzo Rucellai is constructed for Giovanni Rucellai, with a façade widely attributed to Leon Battista Alberti (executed with Bernardo Rossellino). Its superimposed pilaster orders and entablatures brought a new classicizing discipline to Florentine domestic architecture.
The lantern crowning the Florence Cathedral dome—designed by Brunelleschi but finished after his death—is completed, providing the dome’s essential vertical termination and reinforcing its iconic silhouette.
The Palazzo Pazzi (Pazzi-Quaratesi) is completed after more than a decade of work. Commissioned by Jacopo de’ Pazzi and attributed to Giuliano da Maiano, it exemplifies the continued refinement of the Florentine palace type in the later Quattrocento.
Andrea del Verrocchio’s gilt copper ball and cross are installed atop the cathedral lantern, completing the dome’s crowning elements and marking the final major stage in the dome’s 15th-century finishing campaign.
Leon Battista Alberti’s design for the upper façade of Santa Maria Novella is completed, integrating older lower parts with a rigorous proportional scheme and introducing influential motifs (notably the scroll volutes) into Florentine façade design.
The foundation stone is laid for Palazzo Strozzi, a major late-Quattrocento statement of elite domestic architecture and a deliberate rival to Medici palaces. The building site was entrusted to Simone del Pollaiolo (Il Cronaca).
Palazzo Gondi, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo for the banker Giuliano Gondi, is inaugurated. Its rusticated, tiered façade participates in the established Florentine palazzo tradition while reflecting late-15th-century refinements in planning and representation.
Baccio d’Agnolo begins Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, an early Florentine embrace of more explicitly all’antica High Renaissance language associated with Rome—signaling a shift at the end of the c. 1400–1530 period.
Florentine Renaissance Architecture (c. 1400–1530)
