Ognissanti, Florence

Ognissanti, Florence tickets: which one to buy

Ognissanti stands on its own square on the north bank of the Arno, a few minutes west of the busiest part of Florence, and the church is free to enter. The important thing to know is that the best painting in the complex is not in the church: Ghirlandaio's Last Supper fills the wall of the old refectory, reached through a separate door off the cloister, and it keeps short and irregular hours, generally a few mornings a week. Check them before coming, because visitors who arrive in the afternoon are routinely turned away.

Guided walks that cover Renaissance painting outside the big museums include this church, along with the Brancacci chapel across the river and the frescoes at San Marco, and that circuit is the most rewarding day in Florence for anyone who has already done the Uffizi. Nothing needs booking. The square outside has cafes and far fewer people than the centre. Admission to the refectory is free, and a donation box stands by the door.

Visiting Ognissanti, Florence: what to see

The church was founded in the 1250s by the Umiliati, a lay order of wool workers who settled this quarter, and it was rebuilt in baroque form from 1627, with a front of 1637 by Matteo Nigetti that kept the glazed terracotta lunette from the older building. It was among the first baroque fronts in a city that had largely ignored the style. Inside, two frescoes face each other across the nave: Botticelli's Saint Augustine and Ghirlandaio's Saint Jerome, painted in the same year as a direct competition between the two workshops.

Botticelli is buried in the church, in the family chapel of the Vespucci, who were parishioners; a boy in one of Ghirlandaio's altarpieces here is traditionally identified as the young Amerigo, whose later voyages gave two continents their name. The refectory beyond the cloister holds the Last Supper of 1480, with peacocks, cherries and a landscape of palms behind the table. The habit Saint Francis is said to have worn is kept in a reliquary in the right transept.

Ognissanti, Florence opening hours and the best time to go

Refectory hours are the constraint and everything else follows from them; aim for a mid-morning visit on a day when it is open and see the church afterwards. The church itself closes over lunch and reopens in the late afternoon. Florence is unbearable in July and August and delightful in late October and November, when the light is low and the city belongs to residents again. This quarter has the Ferragamo museum, the riverside walk and a quieter set of restaurants than the centre.

The feast of All Saints, which gives the church its name, falls on the first of November. Sunday mornings are for services. Allow half an hour for the church and twenty minutes for the refectory, and use the walk along the Arno in either direction rather than the parallel streets inland. The riverside square outside is one of the few in central Florence with room to sit down.