Leaving Piazza del Duomo and crossing the lively Via Calzaioli, as you go towards Piazza della Signoria, you will come across the church of Orsanmichele, whose real name is the Church of San Michele in Orto, St Michael in the Garden.

Where today this very singular and magnificent building stands, once there was an oratory dedicated to St Michael the Archangel. A kind of loggia was constructed here and in 1337 it was enlarged and consolidated so that the present two-storey structure could be built on top. The building was designed to store grain, which could be distributed during periods of famine.
In 1380, because of the increasingly intense devotion to an image of the Madonna on one of the loggia's pilasters, the arcade of the ground floor was closed in. In this way, the building was transformed into an unusual church with two naves, and today it is a very worthy home for the splendid Gothic marble tabernacle you will find inside.
Among the statues you can see on the outside of Orsanmichele, you should look especially at the bronzes on the side of Via dell'Arte della Lana, made by Lorenzo Ghiberti. On the corner with Via Orsanmichele, you will see St Matthew and St Stephen.
On Via Calzaioli, the statues have been substituted with copies. There is Donatello's St George and a group by Verrocchio which includes Doubting Thomas.