Siena’s Duomo museum was founded in 1869. It is housed in the right aisle of the uncompleted new nave of the cathedral, built between 1339 and 1357. On display inside are some of the original sculptures that used to be on the cathedral facade, several interesting paintings and religious items.…
“A descent into the world of colour takes you into the heart of the Cathedral to the place popularly known as the “Crypt”, one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the past twenty years.” The website of the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena uses roaring language to open a…
My first visit to Siena was in 2010. It was a rainy day and we got lost on the way to the city centre (which is quite an achievement: Siena is not that big). We had lunch at a mediocre restaurant that served factory-made tiramisu, which really should be a…
The Piccolominis were a prominent and influential family from Siena. Their influence was not confined to the city itself: two of the family’s most famous members became popes. Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464) was elected Pope Pius II in 1458 and held that position until his death in 1464. His nephew…
Siena’s Baptistery of San Giovanni is a remarkable building. It was actually built more or less underneath the city’s cathedral. In 1317, the Opera del Duomo – that is, the institution in charge of the cathedral – wanted to extend the choir of the Duomo. This was, however, rather difficult.…
The Palazzo Pubblico is one of Siena’s most famous landmarks. It was constructed between 1297 and 1310 for the Governo dei Nove, the Council of Nine, one of the most important bodies of Siena’s republican government in those days. The Palazzo was extended and enlarged in later centuries and is…
This church in Siena was easy to see, but difficult to find. I had already spotted it while standing on top of the Facciatone, the end of the unfinished nave of Siena’s cathedral. But actually finding it proved to be a whole lot tougher. In fact, we got lost in…
A visit to the church of San Francesco can be considered the highlight of any trip to Arezzo. The church itself is not very special. It was built in the second half of the thirteenth century (ca. 1290) and acquired its present form in the Tuscan-Gothic style about one hundred…
The Santa Maria della Pieve is a church in the centre of Arezzo, next to the famous Piazza Grande and not far from the Duomo. Its shape is a bit odd (it is crooked, as this plan clearly shows), and its facade is even odder. A pieve is a rural…
We stumbled upon this lovely little church when we were kind of lost, looking for Vasari’s house in Arezzo. The San Domenico was not in our travel guide, but the information on the panel in the piazza sounded quite promising. The Dominicans have been present in Arezzo since about 1236…
My first visit to Arezzo was in 2009. It was a complete fiasco. My friend had fallen off his bicycle, and we spent the entire day at the hospital. The only other building in the city that I saw that day was the railway station. Seven years later, I had…
Ik groeide op in de zeeheldenbuurt van een Noord-Hollandse forensengemeente. De straat achter ons huis heette de Piet Heinlaan. Met de naam van deze admiraal was ik dus al vroeg bekend. Dat hij tijdens de Tachtigjarige Oorlog de Zilvervloot had veroverd leerde ik dankzij het onovertroffen Van Nul tot Nu,…
The Duomo Museum was opened to the public in 1953. My travel guide to Milan and the Lakes (2010) claimed the museum was closed for renovation, but it seems to have reopened in 2013. Although it is not as impressive as, for instance, the Duomo Museum in Florence, the Museo…
It took us at least an hour and a half to get inside the Duomo. Security measures were pretty tight and there was an awfully long queue outside the cathedral. Soldiers in combat fatigues with machine guns were patrolling the streets and guarding the Duomo, one of Milan’s most famous…
Deze spannende film over het leven van zeeheld Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676) van regisseur Roel Reiné verscheen in 2015. De film moet het hebben van de prachtige beelden, de uitstekende muziek van de Canadese componist Trevor Morris, het prima acteerwerk van de hoofdrolspelers en last but not least: de zeer…
The San Gottardo in Corte is a small church near the Duomo of Milan. It was built as a chapel between 1330 and 1336, on the orders of Azzone Visconti, who was Lord of Milan from 1329 until his death in 1339. It was originally part of the Palazzo del…
The church of Sant’Eustorgio can be found some 400 metres south of the San Lorenzo Maggiore. The church dates back to Late Antiquity and is named after the man who was bishop of Milan between 344 and 349, Saint Eustorgius. Also part of the complex is an interesting museum, which…
The Opera del Duomo was the institution that was founded by the Florentine government in 1296 to oversee the construction of the new cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore or Duomo. It was the organisation in which architects, artists and workers collaborated. The Opera has been at its present location…
It has to be said that the church of Orsanmichele does not look much like a church. The building is surrounded by narrow streets, and the best way to observe it from a distance is to find a high lookout point. The tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, some 160 metres…
The Santa Reparata is not a church in Florence: it was a church in Florence. It was in fact the cathedral of the city before the Santa Maria del Fiore (better known as the Duomo) was built at the end of the thirteenth century. Remains of the Santa Reparata can…