LA CITTA’ DEL CIELO Eng.
LA CITTA’ DEL CIELO
From the Facciatone of the Duomo Nuovo, the Panorama of Siena
New Horizons on the City
From May 8th until September 8th 2019, the Monumental Complex of the Cathedral of Siena, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, invites us to contemplate new horizons with the climb to the Facciatone, Panorama over the City. Open every day from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, this year and by appointment only, it will be possible to access the Facciatone, exceptionally, even from 8:00 am. Throughout the day, until September 8th, during their stay on the panoramic terrace, visitors will be invited to contemplate the view through an introduction to the City made by multilingual guides. This huge and high wall that, in the Sienese’s intent, was supposed to be the façade of a New Cathedral, an architectural dream, looks at the whole city.
The large number of visitors who ascend the Acropolis and cross the Duomo of Siena, the so-called Crypt, the Baptistery and the Museo dell’Opera are immersed in a triumph of shapes and colors that, in the intention of the clients and the artists, mark the access to the “Heavenly Jerusalem”. The entry into the eternal reality, suggested by the richness and refinement of materials such as white marble, was once even more explicit due to the presence, on the Altar Maggiore of the Cathedral, of the Majesty of Duccio di Buoninsegna, now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera . The Queen of Siena and Heaven, seated on the resplendent cosmatesque throne, surrounds herself with the court of angels and saints who watch over the city personified in the four patrons. Often, in both religious and political Sienese iconography, saints and men of government support with their hands and offer the model of the City to Mary, civitas Virginis. From the Museum, through the climb up to the Facciatone, the “model” becomes real: towers, palaces and bell towers take shape within the still well-preserved walls that delimit and merge with the infinite spaces of the landscape, from the rolling hills of Siena to the harshness of the Amiata. But from the high wall, it will be possible not only to read the monuments, but also “to see a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21, 1). Some operators help visitors to recognize from above the most significant “places” of the Earthly City, the one originated from the “Good Government”, with the invitation, once descended, to stop in the same spaces in which the Sienese community recognizes itself, and live it intensely. The Facciatone, with its mighty foundations and its slight altitudes, ridge “in the dazzling radiance of its marbles and bricks” (Mario Luzi), is the space in which Siena welds the City of Earth and the Celestial City in a single glance.
DATA SHEET
La Città del Cielo – From the Facciatone of the Duomo Nuovo, the Panorama of Siena
New Horizons on the City
May 8- September 8, 2019
Everyday from 10.00 a.m. to 19.00
Special openings from 8.00 to 10.00 a.m. by reservation only
Info and booking www.operaduomo.siena.it – opasiena@operalaboratori.com – +39 0577/286300
