What to see in Modena in one day, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including the Duomo, the Palazzo dei Musei, the Doge's Palace and the Church of San Pietro.
Tourist information
The provincial capital of Emilia Romagna, Modena is located in the Po valley, in the territory between the Secchia and Panaro rivers.
The city was founded around 600 BC. by the Etruscans, who were the first to reclaim the marshy land on which the ancient Mutina arose in 183 BC, a rich and well-defended Roman colony, which survived until the collapse of the Roman Empire, a time when the floods that devastated its territory , forced the inhabitants of the city to take refuge in the nearby fortified center of Novigrad, which had been erected by the Lombards.
Under the Signoria dei Vescovi, between the ninth and eleventh centuries, the reconstruction of the town on the remains of the previous Roman nucleus was started and, with the assistance of the Benedictine monks of Nonantola and San Pietro, the territory was reclaimed, digging a network of canals and ditches, necessary for the numerous factories in the area and along which the typically medieval urban fabric was formed, which still today characterizes a part of the city, where the canals, which until the sixteenth century are still discovered, were progressively covered and transformed into the current city streets that bear their names.
In the twelfth century, with the birth of the Municipality, the construction of Piazza Grande began, the heart of the city, where the splendid Cathedral of 1099, the Palazzo del Comune and the Torre Ghirlandina of 1169, headquarters of the civil and religious power, overlook.
For most of the sixteenth century the city maintained this medieval aspect.
In 1545 with Hercules II of the Este family, Lords of Ferrara who also dominated Modena for almost the entire period of time from 1288 to 1796, an important urban expansion was carried out, called the addition of Erculea.
In the year 1598, when the Estense court moved from Ferrara and Modena, the city became the capital of the Duchy, acquiring the typical characteristics of a Renaissance city.
What see
The Ducal Palace was built around the nucleus of the old Estense castle, starting from 1630, the new seat of the court, located between the medieval part of the Municipality and the new quarters with the straight roads of the Ducal Capital.
The ring road of avenues, which today embraces the center of Modena, was created between 1880 and 1920 with the demolition of the ramparts of the last Este wall, dating back to the seventeenth century.
The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is the most famous monument in the city, a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, together with the bell tower called la Ghirlandina and Piazza Grande.
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The construction of the Cathedral was started in 1099 under the direction of the architect Lanfranco and the sculptor Wiligelmo, who was succeeded by the Campionese Masters, workers from Campione, a town located on Lake Lugano.
In the Duomo are the remains of San Geminiano, Bishop and patron of Modena who died in 397.
In the Palazzo dei Musei, an imposing eighteenth-century building, there are numerous city collections, among which the most important are the Estense Library and the Estense Gallery, where one of the most prestigious art collections in Europe is housed.
Next to the Palazzo dei Musei stands the Church of Sant'Agostino, rebuilt in the second half of the seventeenth century on the few remaining remains relating to the previous construction of the thirteenth century.
The Church of San Vincenzo, built in the seventeenth century but with a facade dating back to 1760, is located next to the former convent of the Theatine fathers, rebuilt around 1960 and today the seat of the Palace of Justice.
Inside the church there is the funeral chapel, built in 1836 by Francesco IV, to put together the remains of the Estense dukes, who until then were scattered in various churches in the city.
The Church of San Pietro was built between 1476 and 1518 next to an ancient Benedictine Abbey founded in 983.
The building has an elegant facade and retains valuable terracotta statues made by Antonio Begarelli inside.
The Church of San Francesco is one of the oldest churches in Modena, dating back to 1244, with partial reconstruction occurred at the beginning of the sixteenth century, due to the damage caused by an earthquake.
