Santa Maria Primerana
This oratory is perfectly aligned with the town hall or Praetorian Palace. It appears to date back to the 10th Century, however, its position atop a podium (stilobate) dominating the piazza, with a classic pillar in pietra serena lodged in its north wall and the recent discovery of a part of the east-west road alongside, indicate its construction on top of a temple from Roman times by the forum. The discovery nearby of sepulchres from the Longobard era point to a presence in palaeo-Christian times. The artistic image of the Virgin Mary ancient tradition attributes it to St. Luke and it is the oldest mark of veneration of the Madonna in the Diocese of Fiesole (whence perhaps the attribute of "Primerana").
Cathedral of St. Romulus
Approaching the building in piazza Mino from Florence, the visitor firstly sees the right-hand wall. Built in the basilica layout, it was constructed by bishop Jacopo il Bavaro in 1028 and extended in the 13th Century. The bell tower has an inscription at the base dated 1206 but its present aspect comes from twentieth Century renovation work.
The cathedral is dedicated to bishop Romulus martyr who founded the church in Fiesole. Major renovation works began in 1878 on the inner and outer walls which gave the façade its neo gothic look of today.
Excavations in the crypt completed in 1990 revealed a continuity of life from the Hellenistic period up to the 14th Century. The interior of the church is markedly Romanic similar to S. Miniato al Monte. It has three naves separated by stone columns all different from each other with splendid capitals. The cathedral and its chapels house a number of prestigious works such as the frescoes by Cosimo Rosselli, sculptures by Mino da Fiesole and panels of the Ghirlandaio school. Furthermore, the high altar has a splendid polyptych by Bicci di Lorenzo and a canvas by Baccio Maria Bacci.
Cloister of the Canons
In the 16th Century, the ancient diocesan institution of the Chapter of the Cathedral created this separate place for itself next to the cathedral around a three-sided colonnaded portico which was faced by the dwellings of the Canons who were called to forms of community life. Alongside is the Bishop's Palace opposite the cathedral façade.
Episcopal Seminary
Palazzo Altoviti
Built to train the clergy in accordance with the precepts of the Council of Trent, it was inaugurated in 1637 by Bishop Lorenzo della Robbia and, two years later it was given its Costituzioni or disciplinary rules by Pope Urban VIII. It was added to in 1697 by Bishop Filippo Neri Altoviti and again by Bishop Luigi Maria Strozzi in 1726. The building in the former "lawn" of the cathedral in piazza Mino, probably up to where the Roman forum ends below ground. The seminary grew to become the most important training centre of the territory of Fiesole and as such it remained until the late twentieth Century. In the nineteenth Century it acquired scientific equipment for educational purposes and then Angelo Maria Bandini bequeathed his precious library to it.
Etruscan walls eastern side
Above Borgunto and facing Monte Ceceri stand the remains of the Etruscan city walls and some of the blocks here are so immense that one wonders how they could have been moved. Even in the Middle Ages it was popular belief that this was the work of giants.
This is the main access route to the quarries of Montececeri. An ancient pathway indicated by a tabernacle linked Borgunto with Villa S. Michele alla Doccia (formerly a convent, now an hotel) and is a rapid shortcut to Florence.
Ghirlandaio's Tabernacle
Following the road that leads from Piazza Garibaldi to Borgunto - today called via Antonio Gramsci, previously via delle Cannelle and then via Ferrucci in memory of the renowned family of Fiesole sculptors - the visitor crosses a small square called "del Ghirlandaio" because it contains a work by the famous artist.
The interior of the tabernacle features a painted fresco which historians maintain is by Domenico del Ghirlandaio, depicting in its centre the enthroned Madonna surrounded by saints.
Town Hall or Praetorian Palace
Facing the Seminary on the eastern side, stands the building erected by the government of Lorenzo dei Medici as the headquarters of a suburban city government for the territory of Fiesole and now the seat of the municipal government. The colonnaded portico and the small loggia, both in local pietra serena, are of the original building. Both the inner and outer walls feature the coats of arms of the local ruling elites from the 16th to the 18th Century.
The municipal government made this its headquarters in 1910. The building was where the municipal museum was located from 1878 to 1914.
Piazza Mino da Fiesole
The area of the Roman forum where the cathedral was built at the furthermost north-western tip remained buried under the accumulated rubble to form the "cathedral lawn". Buildings were later added around the square until all the free space was occupied. The piazza was given its pronounced character in the 19th century with the growth of the café culture and the shops which to this day are places where visitors like to take a break. In the centre of the square stands an equestrian monument to the meeting at Teano between Garibaldi and King Victor Emanuel II cast in bronze by Oreste Calzolari in 1906. The tram line linking Fiesole with Florence reached the square in 1890.
Primo Conti Museum foundation
The Foundation headquarters are in the fifteenth Century Villa "Le Coste" which for many years was the home and studio of Primo Conti. The Foundation was set up in 1980 and is also known as the Centre for Documentation and Research on Historic Avant-gardism. Indeed it is the realisation of the maestro's dream «of conserving the memory and material of the most important innovating movements of the twentieth Century». The Centre has two sections - the Museum of the works of Primo Conti and the Archive. There are over sixty oil paintings and more than 150 drawings by the maestro exhibited in the museum which was opened to the public in 1987. The archive is situated on the villa's upper floor and it contains numerous items that make up the Foundation's document section. These belonged to the leading players of early twentieth Century Italian culture such as Papini, Pavolini, Carocci, Lega and Sanminiatelli and is a wealth of book resources on Futurism. There is also a rich collection of Futurist journals, newspapers and periodicals of the time, including the 1909 "Le Figaro" that bears the first Futurist manifesto.
Episcopal Palace
It stands opposite the main entrance of the Cathedral and is reached via a double nineteenth-century staircase. Its construction goes back to the eleventh century, but between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries it underwent various transformations and enlargements. The present façade dates back to the year 1600 and bears the imposing coat-of-arms belonging to Bishop Filippo Neri Altoviti. Inside, in the Bishop's private chapel, visitors can admire frescoes by Ghirlandaio's school, whereas in the palace's former oratory, the Chapel of St. James the Greater, are conserved an important fresco, the "Coronation of the Virgin Mary", attributed to Bicci di Lorenzo, and a collection of liturgical artworks in gold that belonged to the Diocese of Fiesole.
Badia Fiesolana
This was the ancient cathedral of Fiesole, it was dedicated to Saints Peter and Romulus and was the first Episcopalian seat of the Diocese. It was restored by Cosimo dei Medici together with the monastery and had a refectory, an infirmary, a novitiate, a dormitory and a library (Brunelleschi worked there as did Michelozzo later). The Romanic façade decorated with geometric designs in green and white marble is similar to the Baptistery in Florence and to San Miniato al Monte. It has a large 15th Century cloister in pietra serena which leads to other rooms.
Today, the whole group of buildings is the seat of the European University Institute.
Church and Monastery
of St. Domenic
The monastery of St. Domenic which stands halfway between Florence and Fiesole was begun in 1406 and completed in 1435 by Bishop Jacopo Altoviti of Fiesole and Giovanni Dominici, both friars from Santa Maria Novella. It was an important training centre for young friars - indeed it was the training ground for Antonino Pierozzi, saint and Archbishop of Florence and Giovanni da Fiesole called Beato Angelico whose triptych (or table of St. Domenic of Fiesole, the Madonna of the Benediction and the Crucifixion of the Chapter). Many of his works that were created here are exhibited in the Uffizi, the Louvre, the Prado and in the Hermitage. Next to the monastery stands the church which dates to the first half of the 15th century.
Church and convent
of St. Francis
In the beginning, in the 1200s, there was a chapel on this site that was built by a family from Fiesole. Subsequently a number of Florentine ladies – the "Romite" – moved there and used it as a convent.
At the dawning of the 15th century, Bishop Andrea Corsini renovated and extended the earliest convent, called Santa Maria del Fiore, and gave it to the minor friars.
The church and convent complex is in a dominating position overlooking the Mugnone valley to the west and occupies the ancient Etruscan rock.
There is a remarkable fifteenth Century cloister with a well and another smaller cloister of the fourteenth century. The church itself boasts an "Annunciation" by Raffaellino del Garbo.
A number of 15th Century cells may be visited.
The convent houses the Franciscan Missionary Museum which contains an Egyptian and a Chinese collection put together by the missionary fathers to those lands.
© 2011 Comune di Fiesole — Via Portigiani, 3 — Fiesole (FI) // design by kidstudio — firenze
