Santa Maria Novella is chronologically the first of the great Florentine basilicas. Its name, "Novella", comes from the fact that it was built on the site of a 9th century oratory, called Santa Maria delle Vigne, which had already been enlarged in 1094. In 1221 this church and the surrounding area was assigned to the Dominican monks, who immediately began to transform it.

Construction started on what were to be the sumptuous headquarters of the powerful Dominican Order in 1246; designed by two architect monks, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi, it was completed in 1360 under the direction of Fra Iacopo Talenti, who also designed the Spanish Chapel or chapter house (1350-55), the convent Refectory (1353) and the great pointed belltower in Romanesque-Gothic style (1330).

The elaborate facade of inlaid black and white marble is a real masterpiece: it was started in 1300 and later completed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1470. The interior of the Basilica contains a series of works that bear the signatures of Giotto, Andrea Orcagna, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Benedetto da Maiano, Masaccio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi. The frescoes inside the Cloisters are the work of Paolo Uccello and the Florentine school of the 13th to 15th century

The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as a Latin cross and is divided into a nave, two aisles with stained-glass windows and a short transept. The large nave is 100 metres long and gives an impression of austerity. There is a trompe l'oeil-effect by which this nave towards the apse seems longer than its actual length. The slender compound piers between the nave and the aisles are ever closer when you go deeper into the nave. The ceiling in the vault consists pointed arches with the four diagonal buttresses in black and white.

The stained-glass windows date from the 14th and 15th c., such as 15th c. Madonna and Child and St. John and St. Philip (designed by Filippino Lippi), both in the Filippo Strozzi Chapel. Some stained glass windows have been damaged in the course of centuries and had to be replaced. The one on the facade, a depiction of the Coronation of Mary dates from the 14th c., based on a design of Andrea Bonaiuti.