THE CATHEDRAL OF FIESOLE

Discover Fiesole

The Cathedral of Fiesole or San Romolo Cathedral is located in Piazza Mino da Fiesole , the first one you meet coming from Florence, situated on the site where once stood the ancient Forum of Fesulae. The Cathedral is dedicated to the martyr bishop San Romolo , founder and evangelist of the Fiesole church. The first plant of the cathedral dates back to 1028, when the bishop of that time, Jacopo il Bavaro , decided to change the location, from the Abbey to a more central location within the city walls. The building was enlarged in the thirteenth century, as noted by an inscription at the base of the bell tower (left side of the presbytery) dated 1206 (operarius Michele), and later in the fourteenth century by Bishop Andrew Corsini . Since 1878 followed one another restoration and embellishment that affected the hanging interior and exterior wall of the building and it is precisely in these remakes that we attribute the current neo-Gothic appearance of the facade.

The present appearance is that of a Romanesque basilica and follows a scheme with three naves with stone columns and figured phytomorphic capitals, a raised presbytery over the crypt and a roof truss. The nave is enriched with an altar frontal (altar furniture coating) in marble inlay (processing technique of hard marbles and stones on which you make representations or decorative patterns using the composition of thin slabs of color, shape and sizes, fixed on a plane) dated 1273 and the presence of two frescoes, St. Benedict (1420) and San Sebastian by Pietro Perugino (early '500) while in the left side of the church is placed a wooden chair of St. Andrew Corsini, built by Pietro di Lando in 1371.

On the left side of the church rises high Romanesque bell tower, 42.30 meters high, whose construction dates back to 1213 and underwent changes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when it was crowned with battlements protruding (battlements Guelph).

Some of the houses works: an apse frescoes in the sixteenth century with ten scenes from the life of St. Romulus, the first bishop martyr, and restored in 1883. Works of Mino da Fiesole in Salutati Chapel (right on the presbytery) and on 'altar is a triptych of Bicci di Lorenzo.

For information and visits contact the Reception.