Florence top attractions: the Florence Cathedral, a bridge between Middle Ages and Modern Age
Long is the story of Florence, as the origins of the city dates to the Roman Age.
But it is quite after the troubles of the Barbarian invasions that Florence reaches its Golden Age, which will transform Florence in one of the most important cities of the world between the end of the Dark Ages and the dawn of the Modern Age.
Florence will be the New York of XII – XVI Centuries: the city that drives the civilization. Irony of the fate, it will be the discovery of America (and yes, the “New World” takes its name from a Florentine: Amerigo Vespucci) to start the decline of Florence political influence.
If there is a symbol of Florence glorious days, when it was the city of artists and philosophers, that symbol is the Florence Cathedral: a building born in the Middle Ages and finished the Renaissance. Or better: a building which drove the Renaissance.
Florence Cathedral: the sacred and secular powers “remix”
The construction of the Duomo di Firenze, or Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flower Cathedral) begun in 1296. The project was from Arnolfo di Cambio and it started as a Gothic church. But the mix between the ecclesiastic power and the secular power of the Corporazioni, the Guilds, created a perfect mix which drove capital, great minds and ambitious projects in the same place at the same time.
All the great Florentine Renaissance artists worked in (or around) the Cathedral and Piazza del Duomo in Florence is still an incredible concentrate of art. While the Campanile di Giotto and the Baptistery are masterpieces per se, the edifices of the Cathedral complex contains lots of masterpieces as well: mosaics, paintings, statues…
And some of that masterpieces are the best examples of the Florentine Renaissance: the Brunelleschi’s Cupola, the Dome of the Cathedral; or the beautiful Ghiberti’s bronze doors of the Baptistery.
In the very center of the city the Cathedral, with the Battistero and the Campanile, are nothing more and nothing less than a true must – see.