The current Evangelical Church is opposite the Bargello Palace: it corresponds to the presbytery of the ancient Catholic Church of St. Apollinaris. The previous church had probably been built under the first Byzantine domination of the city (552-568 AD): it overlooked Piazza St. Firenze and had a porticoed cloister, that can still be seen from the garden.

In 1756, the Church of St.  Apollinaris was deconsecrated by order of the Grand-Duke Franz Stefan of Lorraine and became an annexe to the Bargello as a Court and Jail for the Inquisition. When the Grand-Duke Peter Leopold suppressed the Inquisition in Tuscany, the cells were used as a jail. After the unification [of Italy], Italian Evangelical believers were allowed to worship in public and the premises were purchased by the small Evangelical community in Florence that had Count Piero Guicciardini as one of their points of reference. By then, the premises had been divided into municipal warehouses. The Count was to play a major role in Tuscany throughout the Risorgimento: he was a collector, and a bibliophile, a man of Evangelical faith and European culture who took part in Florence’s cultural, political and social life. He had converted to Protestantism in 1836 and between 1851 and 1859 he went into exile for religious reasons. When he returned to Florence he began working with the evangelicals in the city that had survived in secrecy. He joined the fund raising by Elisa Browne and Rosa Madiai with a view to purchase a place and convert it to a place of worship. The premises in via Vigna Vecchia were inaugurated on November the 7th, 1880 after a comprehensive renovation in neo-Gothic style and the demolition of the floor. 

They stood out among the Protestants in view of their  Congregationalist nature, the focus on the Last Supper and the strict separation between State and Church. The premises are still owned by the Evangelical Church of Florence Chiesa cristiana evangelica dei Fratelli (Evangelical Christian Church of the Brethren)  and are used for services and various church activities. On Sunday afternoons they host a Korean Evangelical Church, and some of the annexes are used by the National Evangelical Association of University Bible Studies (GBU).