Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Enter Christianity
Roman centurions weren't in the area for long before Christianity began to take hold. After
abandoning his studies and a promising career in Rome to adopt the contemplative life
around AD 500, a young man from the region named Benedict went on to achieve a num-
ber of miracles, establish 12 monasteries and inspire the founding of many more. His story
is visually narrated in great detail in the stunning fresco series (1497-1505) by Il Sodoma
and Luca Signorelli in the Great Cloister at the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, near
Siena.
One early Benedictine monastery, San Pietro in Valle, was built in neighbouring Umbria
by order of the Longobard duke of Spoleto, Faroaldo II. It kick-started a craze for the blend
of Lombard and Roman styles known as Romanesque, and many local ecclesiastical struc-
tures were built in this style. The basic template was simple: a stark nave stripped of extra
columns ending in a domed apse, surrounded by chapels usually donated by wealthy pat-
rons.
In the 11th century the Romanesque style acquired a distinctly Tuscan twist in Pisa,
when the coloured marble banding and veneering of the city's
duomo
(cathedral) set a new
gold standard for architectural decoration. This new style (sometimes described as Pisan)
was then applied to a swath of churches throughout the region, including the Chiesa di San
Miniato al Monte, in Florence, and the Chiesa di San Michele in Foro and Cattedrale di San
Martino, both in Lucca.
Siena was not about to be outdone in the architectural stakes by its rivals, Florence and
Pisa, and so in 1196 its city council approved a no-expenses-spared program to build a new
duomo
. They certainly got their money's worth, ending up with a spectacular Gothic facade
by Giovanni Pisano, a pulpit by Nicola Pisano and a rose window designed by Duccio di
Buoninsegna.
While Tuscany's churches were becoming increasingly spectacular, nothing prepared pil-
grims for what they would find inside the upper and lower churches of the Basilica di San
Francesco in Assisi, Umbria. Not long after St Francis' death in 1226, an all-star team of
Tuscan artists was hired to decorate these churches in his honour, kicking off a craze for
frescoes that wouldn't abate for centuries. Cimabue, Giotto, Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone
Martini captured the life and gentle spirit of St Francis while his memory was still fresh in
the minds of the faithful. For medieval pilgrims unaccustomed to multiplexes and special
effects, entering a space that had been covered from floor to ceiling with stories told in liv-
ing colour must have been a dazzling, overwhelming experience.
