Siena Cathedral floor discovered. Here are the dates

From June 27 through July 31 and Aug. 18 through Oct. 18, 2022, the Floor of Siena Cathedral will be uncovered once again: once again this year the public will be able to admire the magnificent marble commesso floor, the result of a complex iconographic program carried out through the centuries, from the 14th to the 19th century.

In the Letter to the Philippians (2:15), St. Paul invites people to shine “like stars on earth,” to live the earthly experience as a prelude to the divine one in the city of the elect, described in Revelation: “then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (21:1). The Cathedral of Siena, resplendent with polychrome marble and golden inserts, is inspired by the heavenly Jerusalem. Indeed, the floor rereads that of the Temple in Jerusalem, built by Solomon and recorded in the Old Testament: “but he paved the floor of the temple with most precious marble in great beauty.”

The Jerusalem square is paved “with pure gold, like transparent crystal.” The visitor’s journey inside the Cathedral, tarsia after tarsia unfolds through the knowledge of the ancient philosophers and the Sibyls to the biblical stories, to the light of God tearing through the sky in front of Moses receiving on his knees the Tablets of the Law in the marble commesso panel designed by Domenico Beccafumi.

On the other hand, not in contrast, but in a conjunction of classical antiquity with sacredness, even the austere Cumaean Sibyl, in a panel in the right aisle of the Cathedral, announces “a new order of centuries,” the return of the Virgin and a new lineage that “descends from the heights of heaven” (Virgil, IV Egloga).

The invitation of the Archdiocese of Siena - Colle di Val d’Elsa - Montalcino, Opera della Metropolitana and Opera Laboratori, committed to the protection and promotion of the Floor, is to make a visit with a heightened awareness, with a desire for rebirth toward the light of beauty, wisdom and spirituality.

By booking a visit to the Cathedral Floor, it is possible to have a free audio guide of the Cathedral complex on your smartphone or request a guided tour. With the QR Code found on all information materials, it will also be possible to secure access to the Cathedral, avoiding the queues at the ticket office, by showing up directly at museum entrances.

For more info: https://operaduomo.siena.it/

Siena Cathedral floor discovered. Here are the dates

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