Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta Siena

ORARI DI APERTURA E VISITA:
From 01/11 to 28/02: 7.30 - 18.30.
From 01/03 to 31/05: 7:30 to 19:30
From 01/06 to 31/08: 7.30 - 20.00.
From 01/09 to 31/10: 7:30 to 19:30

Celebrations Sunday and Fest.: 8.00, 11.00; 12.15, 18.00 (summer 19.00)
Confessions Half an hour before each Mass

In the place where stands the cathedral, built between the current and the square that surrounds it on two sides, were made of the excavations that have unearthed the hypothesis of a development area in the Lombard and Frankish period. In the twelfth century this church was incorporated in the building that was becoming the Romanesque cathedral, with its facade facing south, toward the current "Facciatone", the unfinished facade of the "new cathedral". It is tradition, the cathedral was consecrated November 18, 1179, but there are conflicting views and historical information that belie this date. In fact, only in the thirteenth century, the cathedral was transformed into a basilica, with the front facing west, towards the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. The works were completed at the end of the next century. The dome was completed in 1263 and the Red padellaio will appose the "apple". Its height is 48 meters, including the cross and the present layout of the apex of the dome is dated 1667. L '"Workers of the Cathedral" who oversaw the administration of the work was always chosen from among the canons, but, from 1258 to the early fourteenth century, was chosen from among the monks of the Cistercian abbey of San Galgano, which were reported as able administrators, so that the same City of Siena had given him the offices of Gabella and Biccherna. It was the monks to call Nicola Pisano and his son John for the work, the son worked on the facade that period, using the bottom of the marble facing (from quarries Vallerano) and the father created the pulpit, completed in 1268. The figure of Christ on the cross, with her legs tightened, overlapping feet and penetrated by a single nail and the arm "to epsilon" has become a classic iconography. It also seems to have been copied by the artists who created the frescoes recently discovered in the crypt beneath the cathedral. In 1313 the bell tower is finished, about 77 meters high. With Siena to its full splendor, must have seemed that the cathedral was still too small for the city, we thought of enlarging it so that the present nave became only the transept and the side were it to be oriented to the south, position much more advanced than the old building. The project was entrusted to Peter Lando after the resolution of the General Counsel of Bell August 23, 1339. The work passed later under the supervision of the sculptor and architect Giovanni di Agostino. Because of the plague of 1348 and some structural collapse in June of 1357 it was decided to stop work. After a few years, have relied on new work at the foreman of Dominic Agostino, brother of John, who died in 1366. In 1376, the building's upper facade was given to John of Ceccoe were raised in 1382 the vaults of the nave, and this year may be considered the completion of the Cathedral. The interior is of grand proportions, is a Latin cross, with three wide aisles, the floor is made of marble, a work unique in the history of art. The nave is topped by a ledge above the busts of the popes. The transept, double-aisle, and hexagonal cross is covered by the basic twelve-sided dome, decorated with six large golden statues of saints. The whole is surmounted by a blind gallery decorated with small columns of figures of patriarchs and prophets in chiaroscuro. Among the tombstones that lie on the floor stands the bronze of Bishop Giovanni Pecci, by Donatello. The whole structure is imposing, with three tiers of niches, of which the upper one is left empty because it was supposed to contain a St. Matthew, left unfinished by Michelangelo. The pulpit of Siena Cathedral was designed by Nicola Pisano in a period between 1266 and 1269. It has an octagonal plan and an architectural movement and articulated with various reliefs and statues in the round instead of the columns at the top. Four of the eight columns at the corners rest on lions all the same, while the center of telamons. The arches are round-headed trefoil and above the capitals there are marble figures representing the virtues and a larger one with Christ.