Siena Cathedral Audio Guide

Siena Cathedral: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Siena Cathedral

   Welcome to Siena Cathedral, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. It rises over the old city of Siena in Tuscany. Its profile is recognizable from far away, and together with the Torre del Mangia it shapes the skyline of the whole town. Before you go inside, take in the surface. Bands of black and white marble run across the walls, the bell tower and the interior. They are not just decoration. Black and white are the colors of Siena itself, the colors of the city's shield, known as the Balzana. Legend links them to the black and white horses of the city's founders, Senius and Aschius. Since the early days of its construction, this cathedral has been central to Sienese identity. In the next few minutes we will look at how it grew, why part of it stands unfinished and open to the sky, and which great names of European art left their marks inside. Stand where you can see the facade and the long striped flank, and let's begin.

2. 02

   From Minerva's Temple to a Consecrated Duomo

   Tradition says the cathedral replaced an earlier church dedicated to Mary, built around the ninth century on the site of a votive temple to Minerva. The cathedral is traditionally said to have been consecrated on the eighteenth of November, 1179, by Pope Alexander the Third, a Sienese by birth, from the Bandinelli family. The building was never really finished, though. It was expanded again and again, from its earliest days until the Black Death halted construction in 1348. The dedication to the Virgin carries a story of its own. The people of Siena believed Mary had interceded on the city's behalf at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, and that belief shaped the city's devotion to her ever after. The master builders matter too. From 1247 to 1268 the sculptor and architect Nicola Pisano is recorded as master builder of the site. His son Giovanni worked on the facade from 1284 to 1298, and the work was later carried on by Camaino di Crescentino. Beside the cathedral stands the Romanesque bell tower, finished in 1313 and raised on the ruins of an older tower, the Bisdomini tower. Look at that tower's stripes. Black and white run all the way up.

3. 03

   The Dream Cut Short: Duomo Nuovo and the Facciatone

   Now walk to the right side of the cathedral, because here is one of the most dramatic ruins in Tuscany. A huge wall of striped marble stands open at the top. It is what remains of the Duomo Nuovo, the New Cathedral, an enormous extension planned to make the existing church the transept of a far larger one. The citizens of Siena had long pushed for their cathedral to become one of the largest churches in Europe. The ambition grew from wealth and confidence. Banking houses such as the Bonsignori, the Piccolomini and the Tolomei were among the most powerful financial institutions in Europe, and Siena saw itself as the equal of Florence, Rome and Milan. A giant cathedral was meant to prove it. Then plague struck the city in 1348 and slowed the work. Its traces can still be seen in the unfinished structure. Work finally ceased in June 1357, and the unfinished wall was left behind. The Facciatone, the standing facade of the new nave, now serves as a panoramic viewpoint over Siena. Climbing it puts you inside the story of a civic ambition that history interrupted.

4. 04

   A Gallery of Giants Inside

   Step inside and the stripes continue, now in colored marble, primarily black and white, echoing the city's coat of arms. The facade itself, in white marble and Prato serpentine, mirrors the interior's division into three naves, with three portals leading in. Keep an eye on the marble floors beneath your feet, and look up toward the dome. The list of artists tied to the cathedral's completion and decoration is astonishing: Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Donatello, Pinturicchio, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Bernini. Nicola Pisano's octagonal pulpit, completed in 1268, is often described as a turning point in European sculpture, the moment when Italian carving broke decisively from its Byzantine past. In the left transept, the funeral monument of Cardinal Riccardo Petroni was erected between 1317 and 1318 by the Sienese sculptor Tino di Camaino, and it is the earliest example of fourteenth-century funeral architecture. Two more treasures reward a slow look. The Piccolomini Altar carries figures by Michelangelo, among the most overlooked major works in Italian art. And the Chapel of the Madonna del Voto was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1661, commissioned by Pope Alexander the Seventh, Fabio Chigi, of the Sienese Chigi family. It is Bernini's only major architectural contribution to Siena, a piece of Roman High Baroque set within a medieval church.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Siena Cathedral remains a major attraction and a symbol of the city's history and artistic legacy, yet it rewards the person who keeps looking rather than the one who simply ticks it off. You can climb to the upper gallery for panoramic views of the church and the city, and the view back across the rooftops shows just how the cathedral dominates its hill. There is more to chase. The Baptistery, just below the cathedral, deserves a visit of its own. As you leave, step back once more and let your eye travel along the striped flank toward the open-topped wall. Ask yourself which part of this building was finished, which was abandoned, and which parts you almost walked past. Siena has a way of answering that question differently each time you look.