During our prior walking tour we saw the exterior of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which should just be called “The Duomo”. You can buy one ticket that includes the interior of the Duomo, the crypt and ruins under the Duomo, the Duomo Museum and the Baptistry.
We bought our tickets the day prior, and when we made our way back the next morning and I was surprised with how long the line was to get in, even if you had tickets. The issue was we had arrived right when The Duomo was opening. Once inside the first thing I saw was this odd looking clock. This is the Paolo Uccello Clock, a 15th century monumental timepiece.
It looks very cool, and covers a full 24 hours, which was quite unusual for something this old. The clock moves in a counter-clockwise direction, and the dial is calibrated to an ancient system called “Ora Italica”, where the 24th hour strikes at sunset. So the 24th hour is “Happy Hour”!
This is the view toward the altar after entering the church. I was surprised the interior wasn’t more ornate since the Medici were so involved in it’s completion.
This is a view of the famous Duomo (quite ornate), designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, an architect way ahead of his time. When this cathedral was first built in the 1300’s it was planned to have the largest dome in the world, but once the building was completed nobody knew how to build a dome of this size. The cathedral sat without a dome for decades!! They even held services here without a dome, unless it rained. The size was simply too large to use traditional wooden reinforcement since the dome would just be too heavy. Not a good plan by those in charge….much like high-speed rail in California!
It wasn’t until the Medici family held a bidding process in 1420 that Brunelleschi came forward with a plan that had never been tried before, to build a dome within a dome, the smaller one supporting the outer larger one. Both domes were built using a herringbone pattern to reinforce each subsequent layer. It took 16 years to complete, and remains the largest masonry vault in the world.
Under The Duomo is the Crypt of Santa Reparta, the site of an ancient basilica that was discovered during an archeological dig in 1972. The basilica under The Duomo stood for more than eight centuries, dating from the 4th century until it’s demolition in 1379.
The old mosaics of the old basilica’s floors are in very good shape! This mosaic lists the names of some old benefactors, long lost to history.
This mosaic of a peacock has some incredible detail considering how old it is!
Here is a closeup of the peacock mosaic.
I loved the stairs to nowhere here. Remember, the ceiling of the crypt is the floor of The Duomo.
There were numerous burial vaults found in the crypt.
This extremely old fresco was found on the wall of the crypt.
Surprisingly, Brunelleschi’s tomb was placed in the crypt after his death in 1446, only to be discovered in 1972, so the crypt was used even after the basilica’s demolition.
A plaque on the wall identifies the tomb. I would have thought they’d bury him under his famous dome!
Part 3 of our Duomo ticket was for the museum. This is where they have moved the original doors of the Baptistery of The Duomo, a masterpiece created by sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452. He used gilded bronze covered in gold leaf. Michelangelo famously declared that these doors were the “Gates of Paradise”, and that name stuck.
The doors have amazing detail! The artist Ghiberti uses the newly discovered technique of linear perspective which depicts a realistic sense of depth and three-dimensional space. Perspective was discovered by Filippo Brunelleschi (of Duomo fame) around 1415-1420, just before the doors were started (dude was impressive!).
Yet another panel of gorgeous artwork on the door.
The museum has a mock-up of the front facade of The Duomo so you can see and identify all of the Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles on display.
William pointed out this interesting “Madonna of the Glass Eyes” on the display.
Created around 1300-1305 by Arnolfo di Cambio, Mary has glass eyes to make her look more lifelike. Why they didn’t include any for baby Jesus is beyond me. Maybe because he’s a God?
Inside the museum is this rather creepy rendition of Mary Magdalene by Donatello, created in the mid 1400’s. Pretty sure I saw her on The Walking Dead…more than once!
The museum also has several reliquaries, objects of biblical historic significance. This one is supposed to be a jaw-bone of Saint John the Baptist.
As the Big Bad Wold would say, “the better to chew you with”. Creepy!
This one was the finger of Saint John the Baptist. WTF? Poor dude is on display all over the place! Is that a middle finger?? I kinda hope so!
Ok, back to serious artwork. This is Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, sculpted in 1547-1555. I’ve gotta say if you come to Florence definitely include the Duomo Museum, despite the various body parts of poor Saint John.
One last shot from The Duomo compound, this one from the Baptistery (also included in the ticket). Unfortunately they are undergoing a lot of renovations, so this was really not worth the visit right now. The section of the ceiling in the photo is visible, and beautiful, but the really cool part of this building is the ceiling that is higher up and it was covered with construction materials. Oh well!
With that we made our way towards our next target, the Basilica di San Lorenzo, where the Medici reigned supreme. That is coming up. In the meantime, here is another wine window that William and I hit while the ladies were shopping!
As always, if you made it this far, you are likely the only one! Congrats!
