Description of the attraction
Arezzo Cathedral is a church in Arezzo named after Saints Donatus and Peter. The cathedral stands on the site of an early Christian church and, possibly, an even more ancient city acropolis. From the 3rd century until 1986, the Cathedral was the main fiefdom of the Bishop of Arezzo, and then became the See of the Bishop of Arezzo, Cortona and Sansepolcro.
The first cathedral was built on the hill of Colle Pionta on the burial place of Donatus of Arezzo, who was martyred in 363. And in 1203, by order of Pope Innocent III, the cathedral was moved to the city walls, where it is still located. True, the relics of Saint Donatus were transferred to a church named after him in the small town of Castiglione Messer Raimondo in the province of Teramo. Despite this, the Cathedral of Arezzo still bears the name of San Donato and keeps, at the throne, an arch from the 14th century, named after him.
The construction of the current building of the cathedral was started in 1278 and, having gone through several stages, was completed only in 1511. The façade was redesigned at the beginning of the 20th century by the architect Dante Viviani and replaced the previous unfinished one, which dates from the 15th century. Today it is decorated with sculptures by Giuseppe Cassioli, Enrico Quattrini and Viviani himself.
The right side of the church has been preserved from the original medieval structure - it is made of sandstone. In the middle of the 14th century, a Florentine-style portal was made with two porphyry columns brought from an ancient temple. The polygonal apse with double vaulted windows dates from the 13th century.
Inside, the cathedral consists of a central nave and two side chapels, separated by columns with pointed arches; there is no transept. Seven colored stained glass windows in the right aisle were made in 1516-24 by Guillaume de Marchillat, the rest of the stained glass windows are in the presbytery. There you can also admire the huge Gothic arch of San Donato - carved out of marble, it consists of 12 small columns, ending with spiers and pinnacles. The arch was made in the 14th century by craftsmen from Florence, Arezzo and Siena. Also noteworthy are the wooden choirs in the Great Chapel, designed by Giorgio Vasari himself in 1554. Other works of art that adorn the cathedral are Donatello's barriers, figurines by Andrea della Robbia, the cenotaph of Guido Tarlati, invented by Giotto, and the painting by Pietro della Francesca "Mary Magdalene".
