Towards the end of 1200, a small oratory surrounded by vineyards, called Santa Maria delle Vigne, stood in the place where the present piazza stands today.
Entrusted to twelve Franciscan monks in 1221, it was reconstructed in 1279 and enlarged to its present form that includes the church and convent.
Work concluded in the middle 1300's and included the additions of a bell tower, cloisters, adjoining chapels and a series of arches called "avelli" (sepulchral) that surround an antique cemetery.
The faade was terminated in 1470 and the work, sponsored by the most important family of the quarters, Giovanni Rucellai, was entrusted to Leon Battista Alberti who also designed the large central portal gate and the upper part.
The marble covering, characterized by inlays and white and green marble, inspired other religious edifices of the time like the Baptistery and the Church of San Miniato al Monte.
Saint Thomas taught in this Dominican church and the Council of Florence, where the union between the Church of the East and the Church of the West were ratified, took place here.
The inside is done in a Latin cross. The three naves are divided with polystyle pillars that rise into curved arches.
Numerous works of art bestow the church, among these the Trinità by Masaccio, The Crucifix by Giotto, the Diluvio (flood) by Paolo Uccello, not to mention numerous frescoes by Ghirlandaio and the 15th century pulpit designed by Brunelleschi which the Domenicans hurled for first against the discoveries of Galileo Galilei.
Also splendid are the frescoes found in the green Cloister by Paolo Uccello, called so because of the reddish green color of the walls, and frescoes of Andrea di Bonaiuto that cover the Cappellone of the Spagnoli (Spanish), capitulary hall of the convent and from 1500, assembly hall of Eleonora di Toledo, wife of the Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.