Italy : handbook for travellers. First part, Northern Italy and Corsica / by K. Baedeker.

  • Karl Baedeker
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Italy : handbook for travellers. First part, Northern Italy and Corsica / by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    456/494 (page 330)
    i-'iejjoie (Trattoria rAurora, terrace with superb view; Locandu Firenze), Lat. FaesuLae, is an ancient Etruscan town, the Cyclo- pean walls of which are still partially preserved (especially on the N. side}. It was for a long period more powerful than its rival Florence, to the jealousy of which it at last fell a victim in lUlU (p. 287). The town, the seat of a bishop, but now of no im- portance, contains 11,500 inhab. (incl. the environs), who like most of the natives of this district are engaged in straw-plaiting (purchasers of their wares should as a rule give only half the price demanded). On the height the traveller enters the spacious Piazza of Fiesole, and perceives immediately opposite to him the Ca- thedral, commenced in 1028 by Bishop Jacopo Bavaro, shortly after the destruction of the ancient Faisulaj by the Florentines, but not completed till a much later date. It is a basilica of poor exterior, consisting of nave and aisles Mith a transept, and a spacious crypt beneath the choir. The chapel r. of the choir contains the ^monument of Bishop Salutati (d. 1462j, by Mino da Fiesole, opposite to which is a *bas-relief by the same master, representing the Madonna with St. Remigius and St. Leonhard, in the foreground the Infant Christ, and John the Baptist with a beggar. , Opposite the cathedral at the W. side of the piazza are the Episcopal Palace and the Seminary. On the E. side of the piazza is the Palazzo del Pretorio, of the 13th cent., bearing the arms of the magistrates (podesta). Adjacent to it is the venerable church of S. Maria Primerana, dating from the 10th cent., con- taining a tabernacle in terracotta of the school of L. delta Robhia. - A farm at the back of the cathedral contains scanty remnants ot an ancient Theatre. . ■ j >,,. a The site of the old Aciopolis of Fssulse is occupied by a Franciscan Monastery, to which the street ascending to the W opposite the cathedral leads. On the r. a little below the monastery, rises the venerable church of S. Alessandro, with 12 antique columns of cipollino, probably occupying the site of a heathen temple. The plateau in Iront of it commands a beautift.l and extensive *view of the valley of Florence, bounded on the S bv several ranges of hills, on the E. by the mountain-chain of Whe els ntino,'on the w! by the heights of Monte Albano, beyond which the mountains of Carrara stand prominently forth. ^ Those whom time permits should ascend the emuience a short d stance E. of Fiesole, which rises to a greater height tTn the Franciscan monastery and commands an uninterrupted ''orSe way back the traveller should visit the Ja^ di T!«i«.anin 1/ M to the W. of S. Domcnico di tiesole (p. ^iJ], a Fiesole, M. to tne w. Benedictine, atter- monastery lounded in lU^o, occupieu m.' >