I have been many times in Modena to visit the beautiful cathedral, a stunning Romanesque masterpiece built under the family Canossa, from 1099 to 1184, on the project of Lanfranco, and modified by the Masters Campionesi from 12th to 14th century. It is made of Istrian stone to appear like an ancient temple and has on the façade and on the side walls embedded semi-columns linked to arches with arcades below, small columns, cornices and blind arches, all decorated with sculptures. The six portals along the wall have open lunettes and architraves and four of them are preceded by a two-storeyed canopy, supported by lions. The tripartite façade has pillars surmounted by octagonal canopies and a big Gothic rose window between them. The sculptures on the central and lateral portals, inspired on the sacred play of “Adam’s game”, made by Wiligelmus, suggest the promise of the salvation to the faithful, especially in the climbing stems decorated with figures of people and animals and fantastic creatures of the bestiaries, in the moulding of the intrados and in the jambs of the central portal, with figures of prophets, and in the frieze, with the events of the Genesis in four groups. The southern Princes’ Portal, dedicated to the New Testament, was sculpted by a master of Wiligelmus’s school, the Master of the Prince's Portal, with peopled climbing stems on the intrados, the twelve Apostles on the jambs and the story of the journey of St. Geminiano (on the architrave) to Constantinople to cure the Emperor’s daughter, the return to Modena and the death. Near that is the Royal Portal, sculpted by Anselmo da Campione, a pulpit and a relief made by Agostino di Duccio. The northern Portal of the Fish Market, made by the Master of the Fish Market, has a representation of the legend of King Arthur attacking a castle in which the Princess Guinevere is held prisoner, a climbing stem motive and a representation of the twelve months with their characteristic works on the jambs and humorous tales on the architrave. There are also subjects superimposed and located beneath the arches, later placed on the columns of the portals for the prophets and apostles and on the jambs or the plinths for the months. The bell tower Ghirlandina, built in Istrian stone and linked to the church by two arches, consists in six floors with small blind arches lit by openings and by two and then three windows on the upper floors. The Romanesque bottom half, projected by Lanfranco, is surmounted by an octagonal Gothic drum and a lantern, projected by Masters Campionesi. The interior, projected by Lanfranco and modified later, made of bricks (with also zigzag frets in the main arches clad in pointed brickwork as decorative motif), consists in a nave on which opens a gallery and tall windows, two aisles and a choir with a presbytery, that has a balustrade with a double row of columns, above a crypt, with nice Romanesque capitals, ending in three apses; the arches are supported by alternating supports with pillars and marble columns with Corinthian capitals, sculpted by Wiligelmus, and there are also semi-circular transverse arches and broken vaulting in the side aisles. The Masters Campionesi made the rood screen, built for the consecration of the church by Pope Lucius III, that has telamons, lions and in part polychrome relieves with five scenes of Christ’s Passion on the parapet, the ambo, that has figures of the Fathers of the Church and symbols of the Evangelists, the false transept, the groin vaulting of the nave, the frescos, the facing painted to resemble brickwork, on the arches, the pilasters in the bays and the disappeared friezes. In the cathedral are also two Roman capitals used as stoups, a pulpit, an altarpiece with relieves and frescos by Cristoforo da Modena, the sarcophagus of St. Geminiano (4th century), an old crucifixion, tarsia by Cristoforo da Lendinara, Renaissance paintings by Serafino Serafini and Dosso Dossi and sculptures, often in terracotta, by Antonio Begarelli and Guido Mazzone. The small Lanfranco Street was built on the northern side of the cathedral after the demolition (18th century) of the chapter buildings situated around a cloister and overlooks on it the Cathedral’s Stonework Museum, the chapter’s archive and the sacristy, linked to the cathedral by an elevated passage. The quadrangular Big Square (Piazza Grande) was built in the 12th century along a side of the cathedral. The old and new town hall were modified by connecting of the clock tower (13th to 16th century) and blending with new façades and arcades (17th to 19th century); inside there is the Fire Hall, with frescos by Niccolò dell’Abate. Ahead it is the women’s statue Bonissima, symbol of the administration which was responsible to trade, and the Pietra Ringadora, a pulpit used by orators to speak to the people. The Archbishop’s Palace, made of bricks and linked to the cathedral by a private passage, was modified in the 15th century and a floor was added in the 17th century. The Law Courts, built by Giò Ponti in 1960, replace the building projected by Luigi Giacomelli in 1892.

I liked very much this complex because of the quality of the architecture and of the decorations. It’s worth to be visited if you are in Emilia-Romagna but I think that only the cathedral justifies the inscription because the square is not outstanding.

Photo: Modena - Cathedral