San Marco, Florence. San Marco is the name of a religious complex in Florence, Italy. It comprises a church and a convent. The convent, which is now the Museo Nazionale di San Marco, has three claims to fame. During the 15th century it was home to two famous Dominicans, the painter Fra Angelico and the preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Also housed at the convent is a famous collection of manuscripts in a library built by Michelozzo. The present convent occupies the site where a Vallombrosan monastery existed in the 12th century, which later passed to the Sylvestrine monks. Both of these groups were branches of the Order of St. Benedict. In the time of the Sylvestrines at least, the church was used both for monastic liturgical functions and as a parish church. From this initial period there have recently been rediscovered some traces of frescoes below floor level. In 1418 the Sylvestrines, accused of laxity in their observance of the Rule, were pressured to leave, but it took a direct intervention of Pope Eugene IV and the Council of Basel before finally in 1437 the buildings were vacated at San Marco and passed to observant Dominicans coming from the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole. A decisive element was the intervention of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, who since 1420 had already shown his support for the reformed Franciscan convent of Bosco ai Frati and from his return from exile in 1434 had made clear his desire to see an observant community of Dominicans established in Florence. When the Sylvestrines left, moving to the smaller monastery of San Giorgio alla Costa, Dominican friars took over the San Marco buildings, which were in a poor condition and for two years or so were obliged to live in damp cells or wooden huts. They appealed to Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, who lived nearby in the family palace, now known as the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, to fund the renovation of the entire complex. In 1437 Cosimo commissioned Michelozzo, the Medici family's favourite architect, to rebuild the San Marco convent on Renaissance lines. By 1438 the work was well underway and the final dedication took place on Epiphany night 1443 in the presence of Pope Eugene IV and the Archbishop of Capua, cardinal Niccolo d'Acciapaccio. San Marco became one of the main elements in the new configuration of the area to the North of the centre of Florence, along with the Medici family palazzo and the basilica of San Lorenzo. These years marked the height of the Medici family's artistic patronage, above all in connection with the transfer to Florence of the Ecumenical Council from Ferrara to Florence in 1439. According to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Cosimo invested in the new convent a notable amount of finance, amounting to some 40,000 florins. Michelozzo worked on San Marco from 1439 to 1444. The church has a single nave with side chapels designed in the late 16th century by Giambologna, and housing paintings from the 16th-17th centuries. In the late 17th century the tribune and the carved ceiling were also realized. A further renovation was carried on in 1678 by Pier Francesco Silvani. The facade, in Neo-Classical style, was built in 1777-1778. Among the artworks, the most ancient is a 14th-century crucifix in the counter-facade. The crucifix on the high altar is by Fra Angelico. Over the first altar to the right is St. Thomas Praying by Santi di Tito from 1593, while over the second altar is a Madonna with Saints by Fra Bartolomeo. Giambologna completed the Cappella di Sant'Antonino in May 1589.