Religious, Spiritual sights in Italy
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St Peter’s Basilica
In Vatican City, a city of astounding churches, St Peter’s Basilica outdazzles them all. Awe-inspiringly huge, rich and spectacular, it’s a monument to centuries of artistic genius. On a busy day, around 20,000 visitors pass through here. If you want to be one of them, remember to dress appropriately – no shorts, miniskirts or bare shoulders. If you want to hire an audioguide (€5), they’re available at a desk in the cloakroom to the right of the entrance. Free English-language guided tours of the basilica are run from the Vatican tourist office, the Centro Servizi Pellegrini e Turisti, at 9.45am on Tuesday and Thursday and at 2.15pm every afternoon between Monday and Fr…
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Chiesa di Sant'Efisio
Despite its unassuming façade and modest interior, the most important church in the Stampace quarter is the Chiesa di Sant'Efisio. It's dedicated to Cagliari's patron saint, St Ephisius, a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and later lost his head for refusing to recant his new-found faith. The church is supposedly built on the site of the martyr's prison.
He's stood the city in good stead throughout the years, saving the populus from a hideous plague in 1652 - when the church got its marble makeover - and repelling Napoleon's fleet in 1793. You can even see French cannonballs embedded in the wall beneath a picture of St Ephisius stirring up the storm that sent …
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Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis
This pint-sized church marks the spot where St Peter, while fleeing Rome, met a vision of Jesus going the other way. When Peter asked: ‘Domine, quo vadis?’ (‘Lord, where are you going?’), Jesus replied ‘Venio Roman iterum crucifigi’ (‘I am coming to Rome to be crucified again’). Reluctantly deciding to join him, Peter tramped back into town where he was immediately arrested and executed, as portrayed in Caravaggio’s Crocifissione di San Pietro (Crucifixion of St Peter) in the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo. In the centre of the aisle are copies of two holy footprints supposed to belong to Christ; the originals are up the road in the Basilica di San Seb…
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Chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
It might not look it, with its filthy façade and unappealing location, but this tiny church is a masterpiece of Roman baroque. It was Borromini’s first church and bears all the hallmarks of his genius. The elegant curves of the façade, the play of convex and concave surfaces, the dome illuminated by hidden windows, all combine to transform a minuscule space into a light, airy interior. The church, completed in 1641, stands at the road intersection known as the Quattro Fontane, after the late-16th-century fountains on its four corners, representing Fidelity, Strength and the Rivers Arno and Tiber.
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Chiesa di San Domenico
The Chiesa di San Domenico lies Off Via Roma. It was built in 1640 following the design of architect Andrea Cirincione; the façade was added in 1726 after the buildings that once occupied the square were demolished to give the church some space.
The church has been the place where Italian VIPs have been buried since the Middle Ages; among the tombs and cenotaphs of notable Sicilians, you'll find the names of parliamentarian Ruggero Settimo, painter Pietro Novelli, and the former Italian prime minister Francesco Crispi.
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Chiesa di Sant’Andrea al Quirinale
It’s said that in his old age Bernini liked to come and enjoy the peace of this late-17th-century church, regarded by many as one of his greatest. Faced with severe space limitations, he managed to produce a sense of grandeur by designing an elliptical floor plan with a series of chapels opening onto the central area. The opulent interior, decorated with polychrome marble, stucco and gilding, was much appreciated by Pope Alexander VII, who used it while in residence at the Palazzo del Quirinale.
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Basilica di Superga
Basilica di Superga became the final resting place of the Savoys, whose lavish tombs make for interesting viewing, as does the dome here. In 1949 a plane carrying the entire Turin football team crashed into the basilica in thick fog, killing all on board. Their tomb rests at the rear of the church.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Scale
If you have the time, the old town is best accessed via the salita commendatore, a winding pass made up of stairs and narrow archways taking you past the remains of the 15th-century Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Scale, from where there's a good viewing point.
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Chiesa di San Giuseppe dei Teatini
In the southwestern corner of the Quattro Canti is the Chiesa di San Giuseppe dei Teatini, topped by a soaring cupola. The monumental interior is baroque at its brashest, and has been lovingly restored after it suffered substantial damage during WWII.
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Battistero degli Ariani
Behind the Basilica dello Spirito Santo, just off Via Diaz, is the Battistero degli Ariani, whose breath-taking dome mosaic depicts the baptism of Christ.
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Chiesa di Santo Sepolcro
Visit the Chiesa di Santo Sepolcro, whose most astonishing feature is an enormous 17th-century gilded wooden altarpiece housing a figure of the Virgin Mary.
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Cattedrale di San Pietro di Castello
Unlikely though it may seem, this sleepy church on the far-flung island of San Pietro was Venice’s cathedral from 1451 to 1807 – not the more attention-seeking and conveniently located Basilica di San Marco, which was the doge’s chapel. But the island of San Pietro (originally known as Olivolo) was among the first to be inhabited in Venice, and the original church here was the seat of a bishopric as early as 775. The present church is an almost-but-not-quite Palladio design. Palladio had been awarded the contract in the 1550s, but the death of the patriarch when the architect was two years into the project led to a project hiatus that lasted beyond the genius’s own …
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Basilica di San Francesco Lower Church
The Basilica di San Francesco Lower Church was built between 1228 and 1230. The stained-glass windows are the work of master craftsmen brought in from Germany, England and Flanders during the 13th century, and were quite an architectural feat at that time.
In the centre of the lower church, above the main altar, are four frescoes attributed to Maestro delle Vele, a pupil of Giotto, that represent what St Francis called 'the four greatest allegories'. The first was the victory of Francis over evil, and the other three were the precepts his order was based on: poverty, obedience and chastity.
Lorenzetti's triptych in the left transept ends with his most famous and controvers…
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Orvieto Cathedral
Confoundingly beautiful, the cathedral is otherworldly in its striped magnificence. Started in 1290, it was originally planned in the Romanesque style, but as work proceeded and architects changed, it became more Gothic. The black-and-white marble banding of the main body of the church is surpassed and complemented by the dancing polychrome colours of the façade. Pope Urban IV commissioned the cathedral to celebrate the Miracle of Bolsena in 1263, but it took 30 years to plan and three centuries to complete. It was probably started by Fra Bevignate and later additions were made by Lorenzo Maitani, Andrea Pisano and his son Nino Pisano, Andrea Orcagna and Michele Sanicheli…
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Basilica di San Francesco Upper Church
The Basilica di San Francesco Upper Church was built just after the lower church, between 1230 and 1253, and the change in style and grandiosity is readily apparent. One of the most famous pieces of art in the world is the 28-part fresco circling the walls. The fresco has been attributed to Giotto and his pupils for hundreds of years, but the question of who produced it is now under debate within the art-historian community.
The fresco starts just to the right of the altar and continues clockwise around the church. Above each image is a corresponding biblical fresco with 28 corresponding images from the Old and New Testament (possibly painted by Giotto, or Pietro Cavallin…
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Acropolis
The Acropolis, the heart of Selinunte's political and social life, occupies a slanted plateau overlooking the now-silted-up Gorgo di Cottone. It is crossed by two thoroughfares - one running north-south, the other east-west, dividing the acropolis into four separate sections.
Huddled in the southeastern part are five temples (A, B, C, D and O). The northernmost is Temple D, built towards the end of the 6th century BC and dedicated to either Neptune or Venus. Virtually the symbol of Selinunte, Temple C is the oldest temple on the site, built in the middle of the 6th century BC. The stunning metopes found by Harris and Angell were once a part of this formidable structure, a…
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Basilica di San Paolo Fuori le Mura
The biggest church in Rome after St Peter’s (and the world’s third-largest) stands on the site where St Paul was buried after being decapitated in AD 67. Built by Constantine in the 4th century, it was largely destroyed by fire in 1823 and much of what you see today is a 19th-century reconstruction. However, some treasures survived the fire, including the 5th-century triumphal arch, with its heavily restored mosaics, and the gothic marble tabernacle over the high altar. This was designed in about 1285 by Arnolfo di Cambio together with another artist, possibly Pietro Cavallini. To the right of the altar, the elaborate Romanesque paschal candlestick was fashioned by Ni…
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Basilica di San Lorenzo
Founded in the late 4th-century, San Lorenzo lays claim to being the oldest church in Florence and once served as its cathedral. The current incarnation dates to the 1420s, when the Medici hired Brunelleschi to spruce up their parish church. The facade may look like a pile of rough-cut stones, but it belies the extraordinary, light-filled interior. The harmonious geometry, quantities of natural light and classical Corinthian columns of pietra serena (soft grey stone) were unlike anything in Christendom. Michelangelo was commissioned to design the facade in 1518, though it was never executed; hence its unfinished appearance. Donatello, who sculpted the church’s two bronze …
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Chiesa di San Nicolò all'Arena
Directly opposite Chiesa di San Giuliano is the tiny Via Gesuiti, which leads west to Piazza Dante and Sicily's largest church, the Chiesa di San Nicolò all'Arena. Commissioned in 1687, work on the building was interrupted by the earthquake of 1693 and then by problems with its size - it is 105m long, 48m wide and its cupola is 62m high. The church was never completed. It has a terribly ugly façade, a stark contrast to the rich embellishments that adorn the city's other baroque structures. Directly behind the church and part of the same complex is the massive Benedictine Monastero di San Nicolò all'Arena, built in 1703 and now part of the city's university. It is the seco…
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Basilica & Catacombe di San Sebastiano
Before you duck into the catacombs, take a moment to explore the 4th-century basilica on top. Much altered over the years, it is dedicated to St Sebastian, who was martyred and buried here in the late 3rd century. In the Capella delle Reliquie you’ll find one of the arrows used to kill him and the column to which he was tied. On the other side of the church is a marble slab with Jesus’ footprints. The Catacombe di San Sebastiano were the first catacombs to be so called, the name deriving from the Greek kata (near) and kymbas (cavity), because they were located near a cave. During the persecutory reign of Vespasian, they provided a safe haven for the remains of St Pete…
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Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
A masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, the striped brick and tuffo stone Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore was built in honour of the city’s patron saint from the 12th to 14th centuries. Enter through the graceful flower-filled cloister into the vast nave, lined with 12th- to 15th-century frescoes depicting Jesus, Mary Magdelene modestly covered in her curtain of golden hair and St George casually slaying a dragon atop a startled horse. Under the rose window depicting the Wheel of Fortune are meticulously detailed 12th-century bronze doors, including a scene of an exorcism with a demon yanked from a woman’s mouth. Painstaking restoration is reviving Mantegna’s 1457–59 …
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Sinagoga e Museo di Storia e Arte Ebraica
This late-19th-century synagogue is a fanciful structure with playful Moorish and even Byzantine elements. Although Florence was home to a Jewish community since at least the 14th century, serious discussion on the building of an appropriate temple only began around 1850, after the town authorities had definitively dropped all discriminatory regulations against the Jews.
The playfulness of the exterior of the synagogue that resulted is matched inside by the prayer hall, sumptuously (if a little gloomily) decorated with Arabesques and held together by Moorish-style arches. Up on the top floor is the small museum. You can see Jewish ceremonial objects and some old codices,…
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Cathedral
One of the finest Romanesque churches in Italy, Modena’s Unesco World Heritage–listed cathedral is a thrilling example of 12th-century architecture. Dedicated to the city’s patron saint, St Geminianus, it was consecrated in 1184, 85 years after construction had begun. The facade is dominated by a huge Gothic rose window, actually a 13th-century addition, under which stands the main portal; to the sides, a series of vivid bas-reliefs depict scenes from Genesis. These are the work of the 12th-century sculptor Wiligelmo, who actually autographed his work, as did the building’s architect, Lanfranco (signing off in the main apse). Among Wiligelmo’s many vigorous carvings, bot…
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Cappella Palatina
On the middle level of the three-tiered loggia is Palermo’s premier tourist attraction, the Cappella Palatina, designed by Roger II in 1130. Restoration work completed in July 2008 (after a small earthquake in 2002 damaged the structure) has returned the chapel to its original splendour, and the walls once again swarm with figures in glittering, dreamy gold. These exquisite mosaics recount tales of the Old and New Testaments, capturing expression, detail and movement with extraordinary grace. The harmony of the chapel’s decoration is further enhanced by the inlaid marble floors and the wooden muqarnas ceiling, a masterpiece of honeycomb carving in Arabic style that re…
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Duomo
Pisa's duomo was paid for with spoils brought home after Pisans attacked an Arab fleet entering Palermo in 1063. Begun a year later, the cathedral, with its striking cladding of alternating bands of green and cream marble, became the blueprint floor for Romanesque churches throughout Tuscany. The elliptical dome, the first of its kind in Europe at the time, was added in 1380.
It is the three pairs of firmly closed, 16th-century bronze doors of the main entrance (west), designed by the school of Giambologna to replace the wooden originals destroyed (along with most of the cathedral interior) by fire in 1596, which the crowds ogle over. Quite spellbinding, hours can be spen…
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