The church of Santa Caterina is characterized by its Renaissance appearance that recall the most known works carried out by the Brunelleschi and by the Bramante. It has an octagonal plant and it reveals that the building was unfinished since its carrying out had been quite difficult. Its structure also recalls the circular classical constructions.

The architect Giovanni Del Fantasia carried out the original plan of the church of Santa Caterina and he started works in 1720. Nevertheless, many facts that caused a change in the people directing the works occurred in the years.
After its first planner abandoned the works, Alessandro Saller, in 1729, Giovanni Masini, in 1739 and the Architect Ruggieri, in 1746, alternated in directing the construction. Instead, the lantern set on top of the dome, realized by Dario Giacomelli, dates to 1869.
A painting by Vasari and the XVIII-century frescoes by Terreni and Traballesi can be admired inside the church. Vasari's canvas is set behind the high altar and represents the "Incoronazione della Vergine". Above it, there is the "Padre Eterno in Gloria", carried out by Travallesi in 1758. Instead, Terreni's works are in the chapel of the Madonna del Rosario where also a wooden crèche by Cesare Tarrini can be admired.
Since the XVIII century, a new convent of the Dominican friars, that was finished in 1710, flanked the church. The order was suppressed twice, in 1785 and in 1808, after an edict issued by Napoleon through which the disappearance of all the religious congregations had been settled. In the period of the French occupation, before the Grand Duke gave it back to the Dominicans in 1817, the monastery became a prison.