Florence Cathedral interior

On entering what is the jewel in Florence’s crown, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore the visitor is immediately struck by the sheer size of the building:  At 153 metres long, 38 wide, and 90 metres high, its Gothic interior is vast and surprisingly sparsely decorated, especially for the centre-piece of such a culturally rich city.  Many of the decorations in the church have been lost in the course of time, or have been transferred to the Museum Opera del Duomo, Florence’s cathedral museum, but there are still many significant works of religious art on display, such as Dante’s Divine Comedy by di Michelino, and Paolo Uccelo’s Funerary Monument.

Above the main door is the colossal clock face with fresco portraits of Uccelo’s four Prophets, one of the very few examples of this type of clock still in existence.  But above all the fascinating features and artefacts in this most famous of Florentine buildings, the stained glass windows are surely the most memorable – all 44 of them.  Created in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, they depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments and are the work of the greatest artists of the age such as Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno.  Truly beautiful works of art in Florence, a city full of them.