May 24, 2024 - Classic Italy
Florence:  Bell Tower

After our Florence walking tour ended at the St. Croce Church, we had the afternoon to sightsee on our own.  We were able to get timed entry tickets for the Bell Tower fairly easily, so we started off with that.

The Bell Tower is also called Giotto's Campanile.

On the death of Arnolfo di Cambio in 1302, the first Master of the Works of the Cathedral, and after an interruption of more than thirty years, the celebrated painter Giotto di Bondone was nominated as his successor in 1334.  At that time he was 67 years old. Giotto concentrated his energy on the design and construction of a campanile for the cathedral. He had become an eminent architect, thanks to the growing autonomy of the architect-designer in relation to the craftsmen since the first half of the 13th century. The first stone was laid on 19 July 1334.  His design was in harmony with the polychromy of the cathedral, as applied by Arnolfo di Cambio, giving the tower a view as if it were painted.

When he died in 1337, he had only finished the lower floor with its marble external revetment: geometric patterns of white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato and red marble from Siena.

Through this work, Giotto has become, together with Brunelleschi (dome of the cathedral of Florence) and Alberti (with his treatise De re aedificatoria, 1450), one of the founding fathers of Italian Renaissance architecture.

Giotto was succeeded as Master of the Works in 1343 by Andrea Pisano, famous already for the South Doors of the Baptistery. He continued the construction of the bell tower, scrupulously following Giotto's design. He added, above the lower level of Giotto, a second fascia, this time decorated with lozenge-shaped panels (1347–1341).  He built two more levels, with four niches on each side and each level, but the second row of niches are empty. Construction came to a halt in 1348, year of the disastrous Black Death.

Pisano was replaced in his turn by Francesco Talenti who built the top three levels, with the large windows, completing the bell tower in 1359.  He did not build the spire designed by Giotto, thus lowering the designed height of 400 ft to 278 ft. The top, with its scenic panorama of Florence and the surrounding hills, can be reached by climbing 414 steps.

Now all we needed to do was climb the 441 steps.

We're finally at the top, practically looking down on the Cathedral Dome.

"The cathedral's claim to artistic fame is Brunelleschi's magnificent dome -- the first Renaissance dome and the model for domes to follow."  ... Rick Steves

Looking northwest.

At lower right is the dome of the Basilica di San Lorenzo (Basilica of St. Lawrence), one of the largest churches of Florence, situated at the centre of the main market district of the city.  It is the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III. It is one of several churches that claim to be the oldest in Florence, having been consecrated in 393 AD, at which time it stood outside the city walls. For three hundred years it was the city's cathedral, before the official seat of the bishop was transferred to Santa Reparata (now Florence Cathedral).