Art and Culture

"How did I do it? I think God himself inspired me". This is how Lanfranc, the architect who built the Cathedral, put it when asked how he got the idea for his masterpiece. Well, at least this is how legend has it. Whatever the real source of inspiration, the church is absolutely magnificent, one of the finest outcomes of the Romanesque period in Europe. It is entirely covered in white marble and adorned with a seemingly endless succession of columns, capitals, reliefs, statues of prophets, and mythical beasts – the work of another genius of those times, the sculptor Wiligelmus. Ever since the foundation stone was laid in 1099, the cathedral has attracted thousands of visitors and tourists. The entrance to the Musei del Duomo, the Archivio Capitolare (capitular archives) and the Museo Lapidario (with stone fragments from the Cathedral) is on the north side of the church, in Via Lanfranco.

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The distinctively warm atmosphere that pervades every corner of Modena is palpable in the ancient cobbled Piazza Grande. During the Middle Ages, when Modena was a free city,

for public addresses: speakers used to stand on the massive stone block that can still be seen today, called pietra ringadora after the Italian verb arringare, to harangue.

Nowadays, Piazza Grande comes alive with an incredible number of people every year on the 31st of January (the saint's day of the local patron, St Geminianus) and on the Thursday before Lent, the day dedicated to Sandrone, the stock character of Modena, who every year harangues the public from the town hall balcony.

The symbol of the town, however, is the 87-metre tall Ghirlandina tower, so called after the slender, elegant marble banisters that weave like garlands (ghirlande) around its Gothic spire. Twists and curves, however, seem to be a constant in Modena: the alleyways of the tight, concentric medieval centre meander tortuously and it's easy to lose one's sense of direction. This is largely because during the Middle Ages Modena was criss-crossed by natural canals, and buildings and alleyways had to follow their irregular courses. However disorientating, these streets have a charm of their own: take for instance Corso Canalgrande, where, at number 85, you will find the Teatro Comunale planned by architect Francesco Vandelli in 1838 and opened in 1841. Modena also has another 19th-century theatre, the Storchi, still bearing the original double facade.

INFO

IAT Tourist office, Modena
Tel. +39 059 203 2660

Cathedral (duomo)
Tel. +39 059 216 078
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www.duomodimodena.it

Musei del Duomo
Tel. +39  059 439 6969
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www.duomodimodena.it

Teatro Comunale
Tel. +39  059 206 993
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www.teatrocomunalemodena.it

Teatro Storchi
Tel. +39 059 206 993
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www.emiliaromagnateatro.com