The Cathedral of Santi Pietro e Donato is the Cathedral of Arezzo, located in Piazza del Duomo, on top of the San Pietro Hill. SHORT HISTORY An important event, which contributed to the construction of the Cathedral, was the visit to Arezzo of Pope Gregorio X, which took place on December 20, 1275, on his return from the Council of Lyon. The Pope, seriously ill, died in Arezzo on January 10, leaving the sum of thirty gold florins for the building of the new Cathedral. In 1277, the decree of bishop Guglielmo degli Ubertini was promulgated, which stated the desire to build a church “to the honor of God, of the Blessed Virgin and of the patron Saint Donatus”. In 1289, the year of the Battle of Campaldino, the church, already consecrated, presented a fully built apse and the first two bays. In 1384, when Arezzo was annexed to the Tuscan state dominated by Florence, the construction of the Cathedral was stopped. The works were resumed only in 1471, and were completed in 1511. In the early 17th century, following the new rules of the Council of Trent, a modernization operation was carried out, with the renewal of the Read more [...]
Tag: Pietro Benvenuti in Arezzo
Fraternita dei Laici Museum
The Fraternita dei Laici Museum is a museum in Arezzo, housed by Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici, located in Piazza Grande. The museum was founded anew in 2010 to exhibit a series of works collected between the 14th and 19th centuries. SHORT HISTORY The first collections of the institution were exhibited in the Fraternita dei Laici Museum starting with 1820, the year of its foundation, until 1935, when most of the art (archeology and science collections, and the library saved after the 1759 fire) was partly sent to the Civic Museums of Arezzo. Most of the works, about 6000 of them, including 100 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and ancient furnishings, are still in the palace and represent the core of today’s exhibition. ART The Museum is composed of the Quadreria, the Council Room, and the Primo Rettore’s Room. Besides the ancient works, the collection was completed around 1780 with the magnificent Gallery of Portraits, a series of effigies of grand dukes and benefactors who made the institution rich since the Middle Ages. The Bartolini Collection, composed of drawings, prints, plaster casts and books, is named after its founder, the sculptor Ranieri Bartolini, who left it to the city Read more [...]
