If you’ve been to Florence, you’ve seen the Duomo.  It looms large from every vantage point.

Above is the most recent vantage point from which (the roof top of the Ospedale deli innocenti)  I photographed il Duomo.  Not the best conditions for a great picture, but there it was, looming large.  I do like the way the sun, hidden under clouds, still shine brightly in the sky over the dome.

So, since everybody knows the Duomo, I want to dig deeper into a few aspects connected to the piazza that surrounds it, that most people never even notice or know.

Cominciamo: Let’s begin:

Did you know?

-the cathedral sits on what was the north-east end of Roman Florentia?

-originally, the piazza was just a modest sized cemetery, surrounding the earlier (5th or 6th century) simpler Baptistry.

-it was towards the end of the 13th century that the piazza took on the dimensions we see today, growing in response to a Medieval need for more space to accommodate the growing city of Fiorenzia.  The piazza grew at the same time the city walls were enlarged and work began on building the new Town Hall and other monumental churches, including Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, and the new Cathedral itself.

-the piazza is composed of way more than just the cathedral (and its below ground excavations) and the baptistry?  It includes those two edifices, of course, but also Giotto’s campanile, the Bigallo Loggia, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore Museum, the Cathedral Rectories, and two porphyry columns borrowed from Pisa, and the Column of St. Zenobius.

So, there you have it: on Roman city plan, formerly a cemetery, and more than just the Duomo, Baptistry and Campanile.