Florence - The Duomo and The Baptistry

Next on the tour?  The main church of Florence, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) or, as it is ordinarily called, The Duomo.

After viewing David in the Galleria de Accademia, we walked towards Piazza Duomo to view Florence's grand cathedral.  (#1 to #2 on the map below)

Of course, we passed shops with gelato filled containers lining the street window.

I also saw the street barriers.  These caught my eye during a trip to Paris and I think that they are amazing. Depending on the street signal, the barriers raise out of the pavement or slide out of sight beneath the road surface.

We continued walking on Via Ricasoli until we came to Piazza del Duomo, the large plaza surrounding Church of Santa Maria del Fiore.

We entered the piazza at midpoint of the church.  The colors are the first thing that draws your attention.  The exterior is a combination of white, pink and green marble.

Turning my head to the right, I saw the smaller building, The Baptistry. More on that later.

I turned my head to the left to see the domes.  The church is very large and hard to photograph in its entirely.

A closeup of one of the domes shows the intricate colored marble.

Our tour guide Emanuela has much to say about this famous site.

We walked to the right, the front of the church and the passageway between the church and the Baptistry.  This building was small enough to photograph in its entirely from the Piazza.

The Florence Baptistry or Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry of St. John) is an octagonal building that is one of the oldest in the city. It is built in Florentine Romanesque style and is located in both the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza di San Giovanni. The exterior is geometrically patterned colored marble, white Carrara marble with green Prato marble inlay. The pilasters on each corner, originally in grey stone, are decorated with white and dark green marble in a zebra-like pattern. (Source: Wikipedia)

 The Baptistry has three sets of bronze doors.

The Gates of Paradise are surmounted by a (copy of a) group of statues portraying the The Baptism of Christ by Andrea Sansovino. The originals are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. He then left to Rome to work on a new commission, leaving these statues unfinished. Work on these statues was continued much later in 1569 by Vincenzo Danti, a sculptor from the school of Michelangelo. At his death in 1576 the group was almost finished. The group was finally completed with the addition of an angel by Innocenzo Spinazzi in 1792. (Source: Wikipedia)

A close up of the east set of Bronze doors with the relief sculptures.  Very beautiful work done by Lorenzo Ghiberti in .  These doors were named "The Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo.  They depict scenes from the Old Testament and took 27 years to complete. The figures are distributed in very low relief in a perspective space (a technique invented by Donatello and called rilievo schiacciato, which literally means "flattened relief".)  FYI, these are actually copies of the originals. The original panels are being restored and will be inside of a museum.  If you want to see a copy in the USA, a copy was installed in 1940 in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California.

The facade of the church has taken hundreds of years to finish.  It was partially built in the 1500s, then left bare until 1887.  Details of the scandal over the completion of the facade can be found here.  This neo-gothic façade in white, green and red marble forms a harmonious entity with the cathedral, Giotto's bell tower and the Baptistery, but some think it is excessively decorated.  The three huge bronze doors of the main portal date from 1899 to 1903. They are adorned with scenes from the life of the Madonna.

Close-ups of the facade to get a better idea of the details and the different colors of marble.

Lovely way to get around the city.

A view of the facade as we exit the piazza.  So, what do you think? Is this a bit excessive?  It was very beautiful.  I actually thought that it was quite calm after seeing Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

We finally get to a point where we have a good view of the dome.  Click here to read the fascinating details of the dome.  Our tour did not enter the building so I will need to return to see interior, the clock, the frescoes in the dome.

As I was working on my research for this writing, I read about a fabulous bell tower in the area.  What bell tower? I didn't see a bell tower.