San Martino del Vescovo

About

San Martino del Vescovo, also known as the Oratorio dei Buonomini di San Martino, is a Roman Catholic parish church, located in the small piazza of the same name in Florence, Italy. The ancient church of San Martino del Vescovo (Saint Martin of the Bishop) was an established place of worship in medieval Florence. Its documented existence can be traced back to the year 986.

Either founded or endowed by the Bishop of Fiesole, the church was originally orientated differently to the existing oratory, and the building essentially caused the once sizeable piazza in which it was built to be bisected. This operation formed what is now known as the Piazza San Martino, which opens out in front of the Buonomini’s oratory and the Piazza del Cimatore. The lay confraternity of the Buonomini (otherwise known as the Procurators of the Shamed Poor of Florence) was formed to benefit the poveri vergognosi ("the shamed poor"), as a grey stone plaque below a charity box announces on the façade.

It was founded in 1442 by St Antonino Pierozzi and aided by a donation from Cosimo de' Medici the Elder. At some point in the past (certainly prior to 1482), their charitable operation moved from the house of Primerano...