In Piazza Santa Croce, marks left by the 1966 Arno flood still show on the basilica walls, and inside Basilica di Santa Croce, Cimabue’s Crucifix, nearly destroyed by the water, is back on view after decades of restoration. From Santa Croce it takes a few minutes to a quarter of an hour on foot to reach the Bargello, the cathedral museum, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the Ponte Vecchio. Each has its own flood story.
The short list
6 places, in the order they appear below.
- 1Piazza Santa CroceOn foot from the basilica: about 2 minFlood trace: Water marks on the basilica walls
- 2Basilica di Santa CroceOn foot from the basilica: start hereFlood trace: Cimabue's Crucifix, restored over decades
- 3Museo Nazionale del BargelloOn foot from the basilica: about 7 minFlood trace: Collection severely damaged, then restored
- 4Opera del Duomo MuseumOn foot from the basilica: about 10 minFlood trace: Collection protected by emergency measures
- 5Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre DureOn foot from the basilica: about 15 minFlood trace: Restored flood-damaged artworks
- 6Ponte VecchioOn foot from the basilica: about 12 minFlood trace: Survived the 1966 flood
Where can you still see the 1966 flood line in Florence?
Stand in Piazza Santa Croce and look at the basilica walls. The water marks from the 1966 Arno flood are still there, kept as a permanent record of how high the river rose. The square itself sits on ancient marshland, and traces of that ground remain beneath the basilica’s foundations.
The flood is only part of the square’s story. For Calcio Fiorentino it gets covered in sand: a rough mix of football and wrestling, played here since at least the 1500s. The Neo-Gothic facade went up between 1857 and 1863. The Dante statue followed in 1865.
Piazza Santa Croce
Hours: Open 24 hours
Address: Piazza di Santa Croce, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Where is the Cimabue Crucifix damaged in the 1966 flood?
Cimabue’s 13th-century Crucifix is inside Basilica di Santa Croce, back on view in the museum display. The 1966 flood wrecked the church interior and nearly destroyed the painted cross. Restorers worked on it for decades, and given how badly it was damaged, it’s close to a miracle that it survived.
The church also holds over 300 tombs, Michelangelo’s, Galileo’s and Machiavelli’s among them. Giotto’s frescoes fill the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels. Donatello is here too, with a wooden Crucifix and a marble Annunciation. Out in the cloister stands Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel, and down in the basement a leather school still teaches traditional Florentine leathercraft.
Basilica di Santa Croce
Hours: Mon–Sat 09:30–17:30 · Sun 12:30–17:45
Address: Piazza di Santa Croce, 16, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Which Florence museums have a 1966 flood story?
Two museums near the basilica have flood stories of their own. At the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, the 1966 flood badly damaged the collection, and restoring it took decades. The Bargello is about seven minutes’ walk from Santa Croce. At the Opera del Duomo Museum, about ten minutes away, staff protected the artworks through careful planning and emergency measures during the Second World War and the 1966 flood.
Before it was a museum, the Bargello was a seat of justice and a prison, and executions were carried out in its arcaded courtyard. Look for Donatello’s bronze David, the first freestanding nude bronze since ancient Roman times. Michelangelo’s Bacchus is here as well: his first large-scale marble, carved when he was 22.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello
Hours: Mon closed · Tue–Sun 08:15–18:50
Address: Via del Proconsolo, 4, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
The Opera del Duomo Museum keeps works taken from the cathedral and baptistry, including Ghiberti’s original Gates of Paradise panels, Donatello’s wooden Mary Magdalene and Michelangelo’s unfinished Pietà Bandini. A full-scale reconstruction shows the cathedral’s original Gothic facade. And the courtyard is where Michelangelo carved the David.
Opera del Duomo Museum
Hours: Mon–Sun 08:30–19:00
Address: Piazza del Duomo, 9, 50122 Firenze FI, Italy
Where were flood-damaged artworks restored in Florence?
The Museo dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure was central to restoring the artworks damaged in 1966. It began in 1588 as a Medici workshop making pictures entirely from cut stone, took on art restoration in the 19th century and grew into Italy’s leading conservation centre. It still trains artisans.
Lapis lazuli, jasper and agate are cut into thin slices and fitted so precisely that the joints disappear. One stone flower on a tabletop can take months to assemble, and every colour comes from the stone itself, not from paint. That same precision is what suited the workshop to repairing damaged paintings, frescoes and sculptures.
Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure
Hours: Mon–Sat 08:15–14:00 · Sun closed
Address: Via degli Alfani, 78, 50121 Firenze FI, Italy
Did the Ponte Vecchio survive the 1966 flood?
Yes. The Ponte Vecchio came through the 1966 flood that damaged so many of the city’s artworks and buildings, and its medieval engineering held. An earlier flood gave the bridge its present shape: the 1333 flood swept away its predecessor, and the current three-arch stone structure was rebuilt in 1345. The bridge the water carried off was a wooden one.
Butchers and fishmongers worked on the bridge until 1565. That year Cosimo I evicted them and installed goldsmiths, whose shops still line it. The Vasari Corridor, built the same year, runs above the shops and links Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti.
Ponte Vecchio
Hours: Open 24 hours
Address: Ponte Vecchio, 50125 Firenze FI, Italy
How do you plan a 1966 flood walk in Florence?
Start at the basilica, where the flood marks and the Cimabue Crucifix are two minutes apart, then head out to the museums and the bridge. Every stop is within a quarter of an hour on foot from Santa Croce, so you won’t need transport. The table below shows what each place has to say about the flood, which helps if you need to cut the walk short.
The Bargello, the Opificio and the cathedral museum each keep their own schedule, and the place cards above list them, which makes it easier to put the indoor stops of the flood walk in a workable order. Piazza Santa Croce and the Ponte Vecchio are open around the clock, so they can wait if the museums are closing.
