Hoewel de Duomo van Monza vaak een kathedraal wordt genoemd, is dat strikt genomen niet juist. Monza valt onder het aartsbisdom Milaan en heeft dus geen eigen bisschop. De basiliek van San Giovanni Battista, zoals de Duomo officieel heet, heeft echter beslist de allure van een kathedraal. De gevel van…
Question: why do we find a statue of Saint Christopher with the young Christ on his shoulders above the entrance of the Madonna dell’Orto? Answer: because the church was initially dedicated to Saint Christopher. Not far from here travellers left for the islands in the lagoon, such as Murano, Burano…
There is hardly any travel guide that does not describe the charming little church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli as a jewel box. The building indeed has a splendid exterior made of polychrome marble, and in that respect somewhat resembles the basilica of San Marco. So the term “jewel box”…
The term Magna Graecia is used to indicate those regions in Southern Italy and on Sicily that were colonised by Greek migrants from the eighth century BCE onwards. The Greeks obviously did not stumble upon areas that were completely uninhabited. Everywhere they encountered other peoples, with whom they fought wars,…
The fact that the famous Alexander Mosaic was not visible to the public because of a much-needed restoration was, of course, a minor disappointment during my otherwise successful visit to the archaeological museum of Naples. Fortunately, this is certainly not the only mosaic in the museum. A mosaic that I…
The most beautiful frescoes of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN) come from Herculaneum and Pompeii. The two towns were destroyed in 79 CE by an eruption of the Vesuvius, but the frescoes in the museum do not show any signs of this cataclysmic event that took place almost…
I still vividly remember my first visit to the archaeological museum of Naples. It was back in 1996 and I was still in high school. My class was enjoying the traditional trip to Rome, and excursions to Naples and Pompeii were also part of the programme. In those days the…
The Roman power station along the Via Ostiense was opened in 1912 and closed its doors in 1963. The station had been named after the economist and socialist politician Giovanni Montemartini (1867-1913), who had strongly advocated bringing public services into the hands of the municipality (municipalizzazione in Italian). After the…
In a previous post, I have already explained that the Palazzo Nuovo was designed by Michelangelo but only built in the second half of the seventeenth century by father Girolamo and son Carlo Rainaldi. The palazzo currently serves as the left wing of the Capitoline Museums. The entrance to the…
The Capitoline Hill, usually simply called “the Capitol”, has been inhabited for at least 3,500 years. According to the authoritative Atlas of Ancient Rome, a stable settlement came into existence here during the Middle Bronze Age, around 1600 BCE.[1] When in about 750 BCE this settlement was merged with the…
It is no exaggeration to state that the Colonna family have left their mark on the history of Rome. Cardinal Jacopo Colonna (ca. 1250-1318) left his traces in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Oddone Colonna (1369-1431) was the only member of his family to reach the papacy, and Marcantonio…