Baptistery

Lonely Planet review

The Romanesque Baptistery may have been built as early as the 5th century on the site of a Roman temple. It is one of the oldest buildings in Florence. The present facade dates from about the 11th century. It is said that the eighth side represents the (nonexistent) eighth day of the week, which symbolises birth, death and resurrection all in one.

Most striking are the three sets of bronze doors, conceived as a series of panels in which the story of humanity and the Redemption would be told. The earliest set of doors was completed by Andrea Pisano in 1336. Lorenzo Ghiberti tied with Brunelleschi in a competition in 1401-2 to do the north doors. Brunelleschi was so disgusted that he flounced off to Rome, leaving Ghiberti to toil away for 20 years. Good as his late-Gothic effort was, Ghiberti returned almost immediately to his workshops to turn out the east doors. Made of gilded bronze, they took 28 years to complete. So extraordinary were his exertions that, many years later, Michelangelo stood before the doors and declared them fit to be the Porta del Paradiso (Gate of Paradise), which is how they remain known to this day.