Baptistery:
dedicated to St. John the Baptist patron saint of Florence, was construcetd
in the course of the XI-XIII centuries on a site of a Roman-age edifice,
domus. The building has an octagonal plane, which simbolizes the religious
ritual of baptism, and is faced in polychrome marbles the geometrical
arrangement of which is inspired by the classic Roman antiquity. The Baptistery
is enriched with three splendid bronze doors, the first one, the South
Door, was made by Andrea Pisano in 1330-1336, the other
two are the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, the North Door
(1403-1424), and the famous East Door described by Michelangelo as the
Gate of Paradise (1425-1452). The internal architectural of the Baptistery which experienced various modifications in the course of the time, is adorned with mosaics...
Giotto's
Campanile (bell-tower): interesting example of the gothic architecture
in Italy, it's an imposing marble tower on square plan closed by octagonal
pilasters at the corners. Build next to the Florence Duomo, on the original
design by Giotto, was begun in 1334 by the artist and
then continued by his successor, Andrea Pisano, who completed
the original structure with the bas-relief panels. The building was completed
by Francesco Talenti in 1359 with the upper storeys,
the gothic windows and the terrace. The iconographic cycle modelled by Pisano in the first band represents Stories of the Life of the Man, while in the upper bands the gothic niches houses artworks by eminent artists, Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Nanni di Bartolo...
Duomo
or Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore: the task of building the
Duomo, on the site of the old church S. Reparata, was entrusted to Arnolfo
di Cambio, in the year 1296. Following his death (1302), Giotto
was appointed to the supervise building work but he devoted himself mainly
to the Campanile. Later in 1357 Francesco Talenti and
Giovanni di Lapo Ghini continued work on the Duomo of
Florence enlarging the original Arnolfo's design. The construction of the 'Cupola' was really a problem due to such huge dimensions, which was solved by the genius of a florentine architect, Filippo Brunelleschi. In 1420 he started building the dome, on a revolutionary architectural scheme, and completed the work after sixteen years, when the Cathedral of Florence was consecrated and named Santa Maria del Fiore...
