Enter the Brancacci Chapel in the historic heart of Florence, and discover the series of paintings and frescoes of the “Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance.”

The legendary chapel is located inside the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, built in the 13th century as part of a Carmelite convent, and given a major overhaul in the 16th century to bring it into line with the precepts of the Council of Trent. A devastating fire in 1771 destroyed much of the interior of the church and most of its furnishings.

The Brancacci Chapel survived and still stands as a showcase of ecclesiastical art. The extraordinary cycle of paintings tell fabled religious narratives, such as “The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden” and “St. Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow.”