The Church of San Miniato al Monte is a structure that was built between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. San Miniato was the first martyr of the city. He was probably a Greek merchant or an Armenian prince on a pilgrimage to Rome. It is said that, around 250, when he arrived in Florence, he began his life as a hermit and was beheaded during the anti-Christian persecutions of the emperor Decius, then leaving the place of execution with his head in hand and arriving on the other side of the Arno on the site of his hermitage and the current basilica. The exterior of the Church of San Miniato is decorated with green and white marbles that form geometric designs, similar to those of the facade of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella. The interior of the church is in Romanesque style and has three naves, a raised presbytery and a crypt. Note the beautiful marble floor of the central nave, which dates from the thirteenth century.