The facade that never came

In 1518 Michelangelo signed a contract for the front of this church, promising statues and marble and everything that went with it. What you see now is what came of it: rough brick.

He spent most of the years that followed up in the mountains. The pope wanted marble from a new quarry near Pietrasanta rather than from Carrara, so Michelangelo had a road built out there, negotiated with stonecutters, and waited on blocks that kept getting stuck. He called that whole period a waste of his life.

In 1520 his patron cancelled the commission, with not a single stone added to the facade. The design still survives as a wooden model, and the church has looked out bare over this square ever since.

Behind the church lies the entrance to the burial chapels, and that is where our next stop waits.