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Florence, Italy: cradle of the Renaissance

Florence's museums, palaces, and churches house some of the greatest artistic treasures in the world. The most popular and important sites in Florence include the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Uffizi, the Bargello, and the Accademia. The churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce are veritable art galleries, and the library of San Lorenzo is a magnificent exhibition of Michelangelo's architectural genius. Wander some of the oldest streets in the city until you reach the Arno River, cross the Ponte Vecchio, and experience the "newest" area of Florence, the Oltrarno.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) is the main church of Florence. The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior is faced with marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris

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The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

Vasari's fresco begun in 1568, and completed by Federico Zuccaro in 1579 (Detail)

Vasari's fresco begun in 1568, and completed by Federico Zuccaro in 1579 (Detail)

Giotto’s Campanile, one

of the showpieces of the Florentine

Gothic architecture

The Saint Zanobi marble column topped with a cross

Flanking the Baptistery, the column of Saint Zenobius (‘San Zanobi' in Italian, 337-417 CE), the city's first bishop, marks the spot where a miracle is reputed to have taken place.

The Baptistery

The Florence Baptistery or Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry of St. John) is a religious building which has the status of a minor basilica.

The Baptistry is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures. The south doors were done by Andrea Pisano and the north and east doors by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The east pair of doors were dubbed by Michelangelo "the Gates of Paradise".The Italian poet Dante Alighieri and many other notable Renaissance figures, including members of the Medici family, were baptized in this baptistry. In fact, until the end of the nineteenth century, all Catholic Florentines were baptized here

Piazza della Repubblica is a city square on the site of the city's forum, the centre of the Roman city

Piazza della Republica. It is a sculpture of the city of Florence, with labels in braile

Sgrafitti plaster wall decorationsRich decoration of the façades and decorated with figural sgrafitti according designs of Italian artists

Biblioteca Palagio di Parte Guelfa. It is a library located in the tiny piazza with the same name near the Mercato Nuovo in a former medieval Florentine church. This one was called Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Porta since it was built close to the south gate of the oldest (Roman) city wall, Por Santa Maria.

Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra PortaSince its’ deconsecration in 1785 it has been used for different purposes, like housing fire fighters. Since 1987 it is a library, and if you have a minute (and if you can find it!) do pop in to marvel for free at these treasures.

Edicola 1920 Cinema Odeon Palazzo Vecchio Sala delle Carte geografiche Map of Sixteenth Century Italy, By Stefano And Danti Bonsignori

Firenze arte e mestieri Stemma del Collegio dei Mercatanti sulla facciata della Chiesa di Orsanmichele

Firenze arte e mestieri Stemma dell’Arte dei Beccai sulla facciata della Chiesa di Orsanmichele

Firenze arte e mestieri Stemma dell’Arte dei Medici e Speziali sulla facciata della Chiesa di Orsanmichele

Firenze arte e mestieri Stemma dell’Arte della Seta o di Por Santa Maria sulla facciata della Chiesa di Orsanmichele

Chiesa di Orsanmichele

Piazza san Firenze is important in Florence as on it stands the Law Courts, fronted by an impressive facade and designed in 1667 by Pier Francesco Silvani.

Coppo di Marcovaldo. Madonna. 1250-60 Chiesa Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence

Florentines reinvented money in the form of the gold florin. This currency was the engine that drove Europe out of the "Dark Ages" a term invented by Petrarch, a Florentine whose family had been exiled to Arezzo. They financed the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon, to Hungary. They financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War. They financed the papacy, including the construction of the papal palace in Avignon and the reconstruction of St. Peters and the Vatican when the papacy returned to Rome from the "Babylonian captivity".

Loggia dei LanziLeft lion by Flamino Vacca.

Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery is one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world.

The Two Wrestlers is a famous Roman marble sculpture after a lost Greek original of the third century BCE, now in the Uffizi collection

A copy in the Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg.

Wrestlers copy in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia

A copy in Blenheim Palace UK

Philippe Magnier's somewhat weathered copy of ca 1684-87 (Louvre Museum)

The Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere) is a 1486 painting by Sandro Botticelli.

Palazzo Guicciardini, Via Guicciardini.

Palazzo Guicciardini, Via Guicciardini.

Palazzo Guicciardini, Via Guicciardini.

Rose Garden - Boboli

Ponte Santa Trinita

Lungarno

Text: Internet

Pictures: Internet & Daniela Iacob

Copyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu

www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Giuseppe di Stefano - Firenze sogna