De mysteriecultus van Mithras moet erg populair geweest zijn in Ostia. Er waren in de stad minstens 17 mithraea of plaatsen van samenkomst.[1] Nu waren deze mithraea niet erg groot: ze boden plaats aan misschien twintig tot dertig mensen. Twintig tot dertig mannen moet ik eigenlijk zeggen, want de cultus…
Wat een teleurstelling! Ik hoopte via de Via Demetriade op de oude Via Latina te kunnen komen, maar het archeologisch terrein met de restanten van de weg bleek afgesloten te zijn met een hek. En dat hek zat op slot. Ik maakte daarom maar wat foto’s door het gaas heen…
In de zomer van 2018 maakte ik een prachtige wandeling langs de beroemde Via Appia, waarvan ik op deze website uitgebreid verslag heb gedaan. Onderdeel van de wandeling was een heel klein stukje van de wat minder bekende Via Latina. Ik nam me toen al voor ooit een wandeling langs…
Het Museo Nazionale Romano opende al in 1890 zijn deuren. De omvangrijke collectie van het museum is thans verdeeld over vier locaties: de eerder besproken stadspaleizen Palazzo Massimo en Palazzo Altemps, de Crypta Balbi en de Baden van Diocletianus. De baden kunnen als de oorspronkelijke locatie van het museum worden…
Het Palazzo Altemps is vernoemd naar de Duitse kardinaal Mark Sittich von Hohenems (1533-1595). Diens moeder Chiara de’ Medici was een zuster van Paus Pius IV, die van 1559 tot 1565 op de troon van Petrus zat. Een van de belangrijkste wapenfeiten van deze paus was het voorzitten van de…
Het negentiende-eeuwse Palazzo Massimo is thans de hoofdzetel van het prestigieuze Museo Nazionale Romano, dat geheel gewijd is aan de Romeinse beschaving. Er is ongelooflijk veel te zien in het museum, eigenlijk veel te veel voor één bezoek. Het is dan ook ondoenlijk om een bijdrage over het museum te…
Big, bigger, Santa Giustina. This enormous basilica on the southern edge of Padova’s historical centre will make a lasting impression on just about every visitor. The church adjoins the Prato della Valle, a large piazza in the shape of an ellipse where in Antiquity the theatre of Roman Patavium must…
The Scuola del Santo (also known as the Scoletta, ‘little school’) is the seat of the Archconfraternity of Saint Antonius of Padova. Saint Antonius (or Anthony) died in 1231, and according to tradition the confraternity was founded a couple of years after he was canonised in 1232. The first written…
The formal name of Padova’s Duomo is the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. In an older post I called the Duomo “a bit of a disappointment”. Having revisited the building in July of 2022, I still stand by that judgment. Fact is, the Duomo is just a bit boring. The…
The oratory of San Giorgio in Padova is often compared to the famous Cappella degli Scrovegni in the same city. It is indeed hard not to see similarities. Visitors enter a small private chapel with a sky blue barrel vault, radiant stars and impressive frescoes on the walls. The frescoes…
The small oratory of San Michele is all that remains of a church of which the history may go back all the way to the sixth century. The church was largely demolished in the nineteenth century, but a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and featuring colourful fourteenth-century frescoes by…
The Reggia Carrarese is the complex of buildings from which members of the Da Carrara family governed the city of Padova in the fourteenth century. Unfortunately virtually nothing is left of this complex. In 1405 Venetian troops took Padova, causing the Carraresi to lose power (and in a couple of…
The palace of the archbishop behind the cathedral of Ravenna is probably as old as the cathedral itself. After all, the bishop of the city – archbishop since 553 – needed a place to live and receive his guests. The palace was enlarged in several phases, the first known addition…
The archiepiscopal museum of Ravenna (Museo Arcivescovile) is located directly behind the cathedral of the city. Although the building that houses the museum can with some justification be called modern, its history goes back a long way. The cathedral itself was built by bishop Ursus (ca. 370-396 or 405-431), and…
Although architectonically unimpressive, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore has an interesting history that goes all the way back to the sixth century. Unfortunately our knowledge of that history is full of gaps. This is hardly surprising, as the Santa Maria Maggiore has been described as “one of the least-studied…
The TAMO museum in Ravenna opened its doors in 2012. TAMO is an acronym for Tutta l’Avventura del Mosaico, or ‘the complete adventure of the mosaic’. Everyone know that the city of Ravenna is famous for her mosaics, most of which date from the fifth and sixth century. TAMO focusses…
Twenty years ago, on 30 October 2002, the ‘House of the stone carpets’ in Ravenna opened its doors. The founding of a museum on this spot was more or less a coincidence. During excavations at a courtyard in 1993-1994, which had been launched prior to the construction of an underground…
In 2018 the Classis Ravenna museum opened its doors in an old sugar factory (zuccherificio). The factory had been closed down in 1982 and was now given a second life. As the Italian name of the museum – Museo della Città e del Territorio – suggests, Classis Ravenna tells the…
Tijdens mijn eerste bezoek aan Vicenza in 2017 maakte ik al kennis met de lokale heiligen Felix en Fortunatus. De broers waren afgebeeld op een groot veelluik van Lorenzo Veneziano in de Duomo van de stad. Wie ze precies waren, is niet geheel duidelijk, maar doorgaans wordt ervan uitgegaan dat…
I cannot deny that I feel exceptionally privileged. In January of this year I had the former private chapel of the Pope all to myself. This chapel is one of the very few remnants of the old Lateran palace, which was demolished and replaced at the end of the sixteenth…