Architecture sights in Italy
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Scicli
Scicli is full of wonderful baroque architecture - in particular Palazzo Beneventano and Palazzo Fava - and framed by rocky cliffs. It is well off the beaten track and there is seldom another tourist in sight. From here you can head down to Modica Marina (around €2.20, six buses daily) and Sampieri (around €2.50, three buses daily) on the southern coast for long sandy beaches, as well as rocky coves.
Both are popular with the town's youth, with bars and loungers (bed & umbrella for two around €10) on the sand, though there are vast unpopulated areas if you walk along the beaches, where you can be undisturbed by the crowds.
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Chiesa del Gesù
Rome’s most important Jesuit church, the Chiesa del Gesù is a much-copied example of Counter-Reformation architecture. It was built between 1551 and 1584 with money donated by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Although the façade by Giacomo della Porta is impressive, it is the awesome, interior that is the real attraction. Designed by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, a pupil of Michelangelo, it’s a shimmering ensemble of gold and marble. Of the art on display, the most astounding is the Trionfo del Nome di Gesù (Triumph of the Name of Jesus), the swirling, hypnotic vault fresco by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (aka Il Baciccia). Baciccia also painted the cupola frescoes and desig…
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Basilica di Santa Croce
Behind an opulent candy-coloured facade (actually a 19th-century neo-Gothic addition), the nave of this Gothic church, built between 1294 and 1385, is surprisingly austere. EM Forster described the interior as ‘barnlike’, because of the timber, A-frame–style ceiling and general lack of finery. But lurking in the transept is a series of chapels brightly decked out with masterly fresco cycles. Unfortunately, only parts of Giotto’s cycle depicting the life of St Francis survive. Those by his loyal pupil Taddeo Gaddi are in much better shape, as are Taddi’s Last Supper in the refectory – considered his masterpiece – and his Crucifixion in the sacristy. The basil…
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Basilica di San Nicola
Northwest past the small Chiesa di Santa Ana is the remarkable Basilica di San Nicola, one of the south’s first Norman churches. It’s a splendid example of Puglian-Romanesque style, built to house the relics of St Nicholas (better known as Father Christmas), which were stolen from Turkey in 1087 by local fishermen. His remains are said to emanate a miraculous manna liquid with special powers. For this reason – and because he is also patron saint of prisoners and children – the basilica remains an important place of pilgrimage. The interior is huge and simple with a decorative 17th-century wooden ceiling. The magnificent 13th-century ciborium over the altar is Puglia’s old…
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Basilica di San Vitale
The Basilica di San Vitale was consecrated in 547 by Archbishop Massimiano. In contrast to the sombre exterior, its interior is awash with colour as the rich greens, golds and blues of the mosaics are bathed in soft yellow sunlight. The mosaics on the side and end walls represent scenes from the Old Testament: to the left, Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac in the presence of three angels, while the one on the right portrays the death of Abel and the offering of Melchizedek. Inside the chancel, two magnificent mosaics depict the Byzantine emperor Justinian with San Massimiano and a particularly solemn and expressive Empress Theodora, who was his consort.
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Chiesa di Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza
Hidden in the porticoed courtyard of Palazzo della Sapienza, the Italian state archive, this tiny church is unique testament to the genius of baroque architect Francesco Borromini. Based on an incredibly complex geometric plan, it combines alternating convex and concave walls with a circular interior topped by a twisted spire. Inside, there’s not a lot to see, but it’s interesting to note how Borromini uses light to create a sense of spaciousness in such a small area.
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Duomo
A frenzy of flying buttresses, 135 spires and a staggering 3200 statues, Milan’s Gothic Duomo is the world’s largest of its kind, and third largest in any style in Europe. This vision of pink-tinged Candoglia marble was commissioned in 1386 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti and has a capacity for a congregation of 40,000 (Milan’s population at the time).
Centuries of construction (from east to west) finally saw it largely completed in 1812 (although various bits and bobs would not be attached until the 1960s). Crowning this Gothic splendour is a gilded copper statue of the Madonnina (Little Madonna), the city’s traditional protector. Curiously, there’s no bell tower.
Th…
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Chiesa di Santa Margherita
Vernazza's tiny harbour is a delight, so perfectly quaint you'll think you've wandered onto a film set. The small waterfront piazza is watched over by the harbourside gothic church of Santa Margherita di Antiochia complete with bell tower which has stood here since 1318.
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Duomo Nuovo
In 1339 the city's leaders launched a plan to enlarge the cathedral and create one of Italy's largest places of worship. Known as the Duomo Nuovo, the remains of this unrealised project are on Piazza Jacopo della Quercia, at the eastern side of the main cathedral. The daring plan, to build an immense new nave with the present cathedral becoming the transept, was scotched by the plague of 1348.
The cathedral's interior is truly stunning. Walls and pillars continue the black-and-white-stripe theme of the exterior, while the vaults are painted blue with gold stars. High along the walls of the nave is a long series of papal busts. After looking up, look down…and you'll see th…
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Palazzo Grimani
Hang a right off Ruga Giuffa, and you’ll wind up in ancient Rome by way of Renaissance Venice and Tuscany. Closed to the public for 27 years, this palace has finally been restored to the eye-blinking grandeur initiated by Doge Antonio Grimani, whose reign was brief (1521–23) but his legacy lavish. The Grimani family were Renaissance trendsetters: they’d collected Graeco-Roman archaeological curiosities since before they became cool in the 14th century, and some of their best pieces can be glimpsed today in the Museo Correr. To make their house a suitable setting for such splendours, the Grimani went all out: floors paved with dizzying polychrome marble patterns, the…
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Certosa di Galluzzo
Dominating the village of Galluzzo, about 3km south along Via Senese from Porta Romana, is this quite remarkable 14th-century monastery. The Carthusian order of monks once had 50 monasteries in Italy. Of these, only two are now inhabited by monks of that order. The Certosa passed into Cistercian hands in 1955.
The Certosa can only be visited with a guide (reckon on about 45 minutes) who will take you first to the Gothic hall of the Palazzo degli Studi, now graced by a small collection of art, including five somewhat weathered frescoes by Pontormo. It is a little depressing to think that, until Napoleon's troops looted the place in the early 19th century, more than 500 imp…
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Cattedrale San Sabino
Just north of Strada Lamberti, the tortuous alleyways open out into Largo San Sabino where you're faced with the huge construct that makes up the Museo Diocesano and the Cattedrale San Sabino. Most people assume that the Basilica of San Nicola is Bari's main cathedral but this pearly white church dedicated to Bishop San Sabino is really the main seat of worship.
Like the Basilica, the cathedral was begun during the Byzantine era (1034), but when the city revolted against William II of Sicily, he razed it to the ground. It was rebuilt between 1170 and 1178 in a simple Romanesque style with a wide nave and shallow transepts and a 35m-high cupola. Typical of the style, deep…
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Basilica di Santo Stefano
From Bologna's two leaning towers, head southeast along Via Santo Stefano for the Basilica di Santo Stefano, an atmospheric medieval religious complex. Originally there were seven churches – hence the basilica’s nickname Sette Chiese – but only four remain. Entry is via the 11th-century Chiesa del Crocefisso, which houses the bones of San Petronio and leads through to the Chiesa del Santo Sepolcro. This austere octagonal structure probably started life as a baptistry. Next door, the Cortile di Pilato is named after the central basin in which Pontius Pilate is said to have washed his hands after condemning Christ to death. In fact, it’s an 8th-century Lombard artefact. Bey…
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Porta dei Leoni
Heading north up Strade del Carmine will bring you to the doorstep of the Basilica di San Nicola, the first great Norman church in the south and the template for the restrained Puglian-Romanesque style that informed the architecture of so many of the region's churches.
At first site the façade seems shockingly plain, its odd triangular shape rearing up before you in white limestone blocks, flanked by two stunted towers (destroyed by earthquakes). It has a massive solidity and spareness about it, although here and there are some delightful ornamental details like the sculpted Porta dei Leoni on the north side, which depicts a series of chivalric scenes in bas relief. Its …
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Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
Dominating the Florence skyline is the russet-domed Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, with its furiously pretty façade in pink, white and green marble. Begun in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio, the world’s fourth-largest cathedral took almost 150 years to complete. The restrained interior is a surprise after the tumultuous decoration of the façade. It’s also surprisingly secular in places (a sizeable chunk of the cathedral was not paid for by the church). It’s a must to scale the 463 steps to the Brunelleschi-designed dome for unforgettable panoramas, and you can also climb the Giotto-designed, 82m campanile (8.30am-7.30pm). The 11th-century Romanesque baptistry has …
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Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura
The only one of Rome’s major churches to have suffered bomb damage in WWII, the Basilica of St Lawrence Outside the Walls is one of Rome’s four patriarchal basilicas. An atmospheric, tranquil place, it’s a hotchpotch of rebuilds and restorations. The original church was constructed in the 4th century over St Lawrence’s burial place, but rebuilt 200 years later. Subsequently a nearby 5th-century church was incorporated, resulting in the church you see today. The nave, portico and much of the decoration date to the 13th century. Highlights are the Cosmati floor and the frescoed portico, depicting events from St Lawrence’s life. The remains of St Lawrence and St Stephen are …
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Duomo
At first glance Prato's 12th-century Duomo, with its stark exterior of white-and-green marble bands, solitary terracotta lunette by Andrea della Robbia and magnificent Filippo Lippi frescoes behind the cathedral's high altar, appears a typical Tuscan affair. But look closer and the Pulpito della Sacra Cintola to the right of the western entrance pops into vision. This highly unusual exterior pulpit was grafted on to the outside of the cathedral to display the Virgin Mary's sacra cintola (sacred girdle) five times a year (Easter, 1 May, 15 August, 8 September and 25 December).
The girdle, so the story goes, was given by the Virgin to St Thomas, and brought to Prato from Je…
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Ca’ Dario
Grand Canal palaces rank among the world’s most prime real estate, except for the perfectly gorgeous 1487 Ca’ Dario. Its striking multicoloured marble facade casts a mesmerising reflection in the Grand Canal, captured by no less than Claude Monet – but there’s a catch. Starting with the daughter of its original owner, Giovanni Dario, an unusual number of its owners have met mysterious or miserable ends, lost fortunes and/or become frightfully ill, which local gossips claim was enough to dissuade Woody Allen from buying the place in the 1990s. The former manager of The Who and then owner of the building committed suicide there, and one week after renting the place for a ho…
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I Gesuiti
Giddily over the top even by rococo standards, this gaudy, glitzy 18th-century Jesuit church is difficult to take in all at once, with a staggering spaceship of a pulpit and undulating marble walls. The church is lavishly decorated with white-and-gold stucco, white-and-green marble floors, and marble flourishes filling in any blank space. Gravity is provided by Titian’s uncharacteristically dark, gloomy Martyrdom of St Lawrence, on the left as you enter the church. Also playing against type here is Tintoretto’s Assumption of the Virgin, in the northern transept. This image is the antithesis of his dark images in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, showing the Virgin on he…
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Basilica di Santo Spirito
Behind a simple plaster facade lies one of Brunelleschi’s last and greatest works. Designed in 1434, the church’s light-flooded nave is lined by a series of semicircular chapels, while the colonnade of grey Corinthian columns lends a grandeur that is at once harmonious and severe. While a fire in 1471 destroyed much of the art, the church does harbour several masterpieces, including Filipino Lippi’s Madonna con il Bambino e Santi (Madonna with Child and Saints) in the Cappella Nerli in the right transept. And in the sacristy there’s a poignantly tender wooden crucifix attributed to Michelangelo with a rare depiction of Christ’s penis. Beneath the central dome, the a…
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Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte
Miniato was an early Christian martyr who, after his beheading in central Florence, walked up to this hillside spot with his severed head tucked under his arm. It’s easy to see why he chose this as his final resting place – the views across Florence are spectacular. So is the church itself. Begun in the early 11th century, it’s a marvel of Tuscan Romanesque with its geometric marble facade, Byzantine-style mosaics, floors paved in beautiful patterns, and duplex-style choir raised above an even older and more atmospheric crypt. The church also has frescoes by Agnolo Gaddi, a terracotta sculpture by Luca della Robbia and a free-standing chapel by Michelozzo. Come around 4.3…
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Fondaco dei Tedeschi
Stamps are the main commodity traded near the ancient well in the sombre courtyard of this former fondacho (trading house), where Venice’s central post office was installed in 1937. But imagine how this place must have looked during its 13th- to 17th-century heyday as the Wall Street of Venice’s German community, before the creeping damp destroyed the exterior frescoes by Giorgione and Titian – only a few fragments remain in the Ca’ d’Oro. The traders here drove a hard bargain: when Giorgione and Titian showed up to collect their payment of 150 ducats for the work, they were told their work was worth only 130 ducats. Incensed, they insisted on an independent app…
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Mercati di Traiano & Museo dei Fori Imperiali
Mercati di Traiano & Museo dei Fori Imperiali is a striking new museum that brings to life Trajan’s great 2nd-century market complex. It provides a fascinating introduction to the Imperial Forums with detailed explanatory panels and a smattering of archaeological artefacts. However, the museum’s real highlight is the access it gives to Trajan’s Forum. From the main hallway, a lift whisks you up to the Torre delle Milizie (Militia Tower), a 13th-century red-brick tower, and the upper levels of the Mercati di Traiano (Trajan’s Markets). These markets, housed in a three-storey semicircular construction, were Trajan’s frenetic commercial precinct, with hundreds of trade…
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Duomo Cathedral
The onion-domed bell tower of the Duomo Cathedral dominates the Oristano skyline.
Most of what you see today is a baroque makeover, although some elements, including the apses and a chapel, survive from a Gothic predecessor. The 14th-century wooden sculpture Annunziata or Madonna del Rimedio, in the first chapel on the right as you enter, is believed to be by Nino Pisano, a Tuscan sculptor whose late-Gothic works stand on the cusp of the Renaissance. Two marble panels that once fronted the statue bear 11th- to 12th-century sculptural reliefs on one side depicting Daniel in the lion's den. The other side, carved about 300 years later by an unknown Catalan artist, depicts a…
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Palazzo dei Congressi
One of the few planned developments in Rome’s history, EUR was built for an international exhibition in 1942, and although war intervened and the exhibition never took place, the name stuck – Esposizione Universale di Roma (Roman Universal Exhibition) or EUR. There are few museums but the area’s appeal (or lack of it) lies in its spectacular rationalist architecture. It’s not to everyone’s taste but the style is beautifully expressed in a number of distinctive palazzi, including the wonderful Palazzo dei Congressi. The area is still a focus for development, with Massimiliano Fuksas’ cutting-edge Nuvola (‘cloud’) congress centre being built here, and mayor Gianni…
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