Photos by Marco Badiani
Most people go into buildings. But in the case of Santa Croce and in particular the Pazzi Chapel, the building has gotten into us.
Being partners of Opera di Santa Croce’s Kickstarter campaign to raise $95,000 before December 19, 2014 has come with the added bonus of viewing the 720-year-old church from an array of different angles. That’s how we ended up carefully edging our way along a narrow balcony overlooking the interior of the basilica, and on the roof with a Stendhal-syndrome-inducing view of the city. It’s how our whole group spent hours learning about the Pazzi chapel, and how we have lain on the floor in the middle and looked up (more than once).
We’ve been in close contact with actors, archivists and opera singers during this campaign. We spent a 13-hour-long filming day with BBC presenter Francesco Da Mosto during one of the heaviest rainfalls of the season—at one point we had to pause because the microphone was picking up too much weather noise. We’ve witnessed choirs and opera singers break out in song in the Pazzi chapel, and led 120 snap-happy Instagramers into Brunelleschi’s masterpiece.
We feel it, and we’re not the only ones: there’s something about the Pazzi Chapel that gets into you, that you understand with your whole body. We know we’re part of something bigger for having been part of this space. We’ve also all personally donated to the crowdfunding campaign to ensure that our names will be recorded in the church’s archive, buried alongside the likes of Michelangelo and Galileo, so that just as we won’t forget the building, the building won’t forget us.
You can leave a permanent mark on history even in today’s digital world. Give what you can to the #CrazyforPazzi campaign and be recorded in Santa Croce’s historical archive.
