The Chiesa di Santa Margherita de' Cerchi is a 13th-century,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church dedicated to

Margaret the Virgin Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr () in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in Western Christianity, on 30th of July (Julian calendar) by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on Epip ...

in the centre of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is among the oldest churches in Florence.

History

It is first recorded in 1032 and is said, contentiously, to have been the location of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's marriage to

Gemma Donati Gemma di Manetto Donati ( – after 1333), commonly shortened to Gemma Donati, was the wife of Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Biography Gemma Donati's life is relatively undocumented. Throughout his life, Dante never mentioned Donati. Instead ...

in 1285 or 1290. It was certainly the

Donati Donati is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Angelo Donati (1885-1960), Italian banker and philanthropist * Baldassare Donati (1525/30–1603), Italian composer of the late Renaissance * Bianca Donati (born 1995), Arg ...

family's parish church and also contains several tombs of the Portinari family, to which Dante's great love

Beatrice Portinari Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari (; 1265 – 8 or 19 June 1290) was an Italian woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's '' Vita Nuova'', and is also identified with the Beatrice who acts as ...

belonged, including Monna Tessa, her nursemaid. The church was consecrated on the day of ''Saint Margaret''. The main patron families of the church in the 13th and 14th century, who had chapels in the church, were the Cerchi, the Donati, and the Adimari families. The church contains a fine altarpiece of the ''Madonna and Four Saints'' by

Neri di Bicci Neri di Bicci (1419–1491) was an Italian painter active in his native Florence. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he studied under his father, Bicci di Lorenzo, who had in turn studied under his father, Lorenzo di Bicci. The three ...

. In the entrance is a chapel erected by Jacopo Salviati and his wife, Lucrezia de' Medici. Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine
by Giuseppe Richa (1755), page 136-138. Tradition holds that visitors can plead in writing to Beatrice to ask her to fix their love lives, leaving the letters in a basket next to her shrine.

References

External links

Margherita de' Cerchi Romanesque architecture in Florence 13th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy {{Tuscany-RC-church-stub