Modena, Italy

Modena
Registered Sector: 
Cathedral, Civic Tower and the Great Square, Modena
Location and site: 
Modena is located in the plain the Po. Their historical center is in the crossing of the ancient via Emilia (of Plasencia to Rimini) and of the route that takes to the borders the port of Brenner.
Historical Function: 
Episcopal headquarters, capital the Dukedom the East.
Administrative Status: 
Historical Reference: 
  • Roman colony been founded in 183 before J.C., Modena spends for a long eclipse among the century IV and the VIII and it is abandoned in the centuries V and VI. As city it shelters the relics San Geminiano and it is chosen as headquarters the diocese in the century VIII also it prospers under the Episcopal authority again.
  • During the centuries IX and X, after the reign of the Carolingios, the decadence of the imperial authority it favors the establishment of the local powers in the north of Italy. Three concurrent authorities reign in Modena in the XII century: the Benedictine abbey of Nonantola, the bishopric of Modena and give the Gentlemen Storms, the Canossa, nobiliary dynasty the most powerful the central part the north of Italy in that time.
  • As Mathilde of Canossa, mediator between the Papa and the emperor during the Dispute of the Investitures, takes it leaves finally the Papal side, Modena it passes to the Gregorian reformation, what puts an end to the crisis gives the succession of the bishops.
  • In 1099, a new cathedral, symbol is built of the agreement concluded with to the Roman Catholic Church, which is built on the place of the old sanctuary where the relics are conserved of San Geminiano. The years 1099 at 1106 will mark the first phase of construction, extraordinarily well restored by means of documents and inscriptions. Something exceptional in the medieval tradition, it is named the architect Lanfranco and to the sculptor Wiligelmo. The rebirth gives the paper of the creators it indicates the coming of a modern conception in the artistic production.
  • In the same time, the Big Piazza (great public square) that forms a quadrilateral, it was built in front of the cathedral of way to gather around her, all the municipal and ecclesiastical buildings.
  • In spite of the architectural modifications of the following centuries, it is in the XII century that was marked more the development gives Modena. The Italian Roman style arrives to its end to the interior of the cathedral and is witness of a prosperous period of the city.
Urban Morphology: 
coming soon
Registration Criteria: 
The combined creation of Lanfranco and Wiligelmo it is one teacher it works the human creative genius where a new dialectic is imposed in the relationships between the architecture and the sculpture in the Roman art. The group Modena it is an exceptional testimony the cultural tradition the XII century and one gives the eminent examples the architectural complex where the securities religious and civil they are conjugated to the interior of a Christian city the Half Age. (approaches i, ii, iii and iv)