Santa Reparata is the former cathedral of Florence, Italy. Its name refers to Saint Reparata, an early virgin martyr who is the co-patron saint of Florence. Florence Cathedral was constructed over it.
Legends about the origin
The oldest legends are related to one single event, the invasion of the Ostrogoths under Radagaisus: Santa Reparata was constructed to celebrate the victory over Radagaisus on the day of S. Reparata, which happened during the reign of Honorius (emperor) (395 - 423). A variant of the previous legend says that the church existed before the battle and was dedicated to San Salvatore. Only the name of the building was changed when Radagaisus arrived. The third legend refers to the transferral of the remains of St. Zanobus from San Lorenzo to Santa Reparata, and dates this event to 430. Thus the building must have existed at the time.
This last legend was important for the dating of the building. Still, the episode of the bone transferral is dated to the 9th century by most scientists, because the version according to which the transfer occurred in the 5th century is based on a tale by bishop Andrew, who in turn attributed the legend to the Milanese bishop Simplicianus, who, according to Andrew, wrote a biography of the saint. This biography turned out to be a fake written around 1130.
Even though distinct proof does not exist, historians generally date the transfer to the 9th century, based on Andrew's version.
Neither are the other two legends about the origin based on solid evidence because the victory over Radagaisus happened in August 405 or 406, but Santa Reparata is celebrated on the 8th of October. At any rate, in 1353 the local authorities, the Signoria, officially accepted the legend that the church was built in honor of Santa Reparata.
Excavation
There were six distinct excavation campaigns between 1965 and 1974. A last excavation between the baptistery and stairway of the dome was conducted from 1971 to 1972. The discovery of the remains of Santa Reparata has delivered the most concrete evidence of the early Christian age in Florence, which had not been well documented previously. The evidence found before that time includes the excavations in 1948 in Santa Felicita, the notes about San Lorenzo cited by Paolino da Milano in his biography of Abrosius and some tombstones and sarcophagi, but little else.
The excavations were studied by the Canadian Franklin Toker and by da Morozzi, who have published their results. Toker based his work on studies conducted by the archeologist E. Galli during the first two decades of the 19th century. Toker continued the comparative studies undertaken by Galli with tombs that were rediscovered in the area before the baptistery. These tombs are no longer exhibited, but Galli published an account of his research. After reading the conclusions of Toker, Busignani found several inconsistencies that put some question marks to the dating of the levels that was based on the tombs. It is safer to base the research on the dating of coins that were discovered in the Roman soil between the layers of Santa Reparata.
All the coins that were found in the Roman soil belonged to a time frame from the era of emperor Gordianus III (238 to 244) and the reign of emperor Honorius (395 – 423). There is also a glass object, an S-shaped goblet, that was found in a tomb that was inserted in the mosaic pavement of the basilica, and therefore is dated later than the mosaic. By way of comparison with analogous finds which have reliable proofs for their dating, the goblet is dated to the end of the seventh century at the latest. At last, regarding these finds in the Roman soil, one can say that they are to be dated earlier than the 4th century. One can also conclude that at the end of the seventh or eighth century already the tiled floor with the mosaic needed to be partially renovated because the glass object was found in a tomb that was put in a zone where the floor had holes. This, according to Busignani, is sufficient evidence to maintain that the basilica was built at the end of the fourth century or during the first decades of the following century, after the victory of the Roman army over Radagaisus.