Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
122
was to create. Early on in the process he had told students that he wanted this
Pietà
to stand at his tomb, but when the work didn't go well, he took a chisel to
it. He would have destroyed the beautiful sculpture had his apprentices not inter-
vened and finished some of the minor characters (the figure of Nicodemus was
untouched, legend has it, because this was a self-portrait of the artist).
PIAZZA SANTA CROCE & NEARBY
Basilica di Santa Croce
(Piazza Santa Croce;
%
055-2466105;
€
4; Mon-Sat
9:30am-5:30pm, Sun 1-5:30pm; Opera di Santa Croce Mon-Sat 9am-7:30pm, Sun
9am-2pm)
contains the elaborate, status-symbol tombs of the brightest and
the best (or at least the richest) of the Renaissance, including Michelangelo,
Machiavelli, and Galileo. Dante has a tomb, but he didn't make the trip (see
“Who is Buried in Dante's Tomb?” below). Over 250 others are interred above
and below visiting tourists. (It's said the expression “stinking rich” came from
commoners holding their noses with disdain as they walked on top of these
expensive graves in churches.)
The church looks large but shabby from the outside, and massive and majes-
tic inside. Rent the comprehensive audio-tour headphones from the stand outside
the side doors for a nearly 2-hour explanation of over 200 locations in the church.
55
Who is Buried in Dante's Tomb?
Not Dante. Actually, Dante's tomb in Santa Croce is more properly called a
“cenotaph,” a memorial tribute when the body is elsewhere. Dante Alighieri,
author of the sublime
Divine Comedy,
is credited with popularizing (if not
creating) the modern Italian language. He was born in Florence in 1265, and
from the cenotaph, the statue outside Santa Croce, and the various shrines
around town, you'd think he had always been a hometown hero.
But Dante became involved in politics and chose the wrong side during
one of Florence's incessant civil wars. He took the side of the pro-imperial
bankers of the White Party versus the Black Party of noble families who sup-
ported the Pope's financial and political interests. In 1302, the Black Party
was on top, and Dante was exiled from the city for 2 years. Angered by his
expulsion, he wandered the northern Italian landscape for the rest of his
life, refusing all offers to return to his hometown. Instead, he wrote his
three-part poetic saga of heaven, hell, and purgatory, being sure to popu-
late the lowest depths with his former opponents in Florentine politics.
Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, and the town claimed him as its own,
denying Florence's continued requests for the body.
Florence had better luck with Michelangelo's corpse. Despite the fact
that the artist did the bulk of his work in Rome, the Medicis decided he
belonged to their city. Ten years after his death, agents stole his body and
brought it to Florence in 1574, ensuring only one cenotaph among the
many tombs in Santa Croce.
