Mijn eerste bezoek aan Arezzo was in 2009 en liep uit op een compleet fiasco. Mijn vriend was van zijn fiets gevallen en we brachten vervolgens de hele dag in het ziekenhuis door. Het enige andere gebouw in de stad dat ik die dag zag, was het station. Zeven jaar…
The church of Sant’Antonio di Padova, known as Il Santo to locals, is not just any church. It is in fact the second most important church of the Order of the Franciscans, after the Papal Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. It is huge, but not as large as the…
It was 10:45 in the morning on a lovely, sunny day in picturesque Venice. We had a reservation at a restaurant near the Campo San Barnaba at noon, so we still had more than an hour to spend on the streets of the Serenissima. The Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari…
It is not difficult to rattle off pages about the Santa Maria in Aracoeli. The church has a long history and it is chock-full of beautiful art. Although there are a lot of Baroque ornaments, the Santa Maria in Aracoeli is an interesting mix of medieval and more modern elements.…
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.…
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.…
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…
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 Croce is the principal church of the Franciscans in Florence. It is one of the largest Franciscan churches in the world, perhaps even the largest. The basilica can be found on the Piazza Santa Croce, which is the location of the annual Calcio storico or historical football in…
No matter how many times I have seen it, Florence’s cathedral continues to impress me, and for many reasons. The Duomo is simply huge, with a length of some 153 metres and a nave width of 38 metres (90 metres at the crossing). It can accommodate at least 20.000 people.…
An old legend claims that Florence’s beautiful Baptistery of San Giovanni was originally a temple of Mars, the Roman god of war. The Roman emperor Augustus supposedly had it built to celebrate the subjugation of nearby Fiesole (Faesulae in those days) and the early Christians later converted it into a…
The Vallumbrosan Order is a branch of the Benedictines that was founded in the eleventh century by Saint John Gualbert (died 1073). The first church of the Vallumbrosans in Florence was built in either 1077 or 1092 (different dates are mentioned in different sources). At that time it was outside…