A travel guide to the UNESCO Sites in Modena - Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande | My Travelogue - Indian Travel Blogger, Heritage enthusiast & UNESCO hunter!

This article first appeared in My Travelogue by Bhushavali

My this particular trip was one of the very last Italian trips I took before moving out of Europe. Thanks to Emilia Romagna Tourism's planning, the trip to cover as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites as possible in the Emilia Romagna region was possible; plus one special site - the country of San Marino, which also has 1 UNESCO Site!

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Modena Emilia Romagna Italy

Cathedral from Piazza Grande

Preda Ringadora

Duomo del Modena | Modena Cathedral | UNESCO World heritage Site

18th C CE Mosiac work at Modena Cathedral

Duomo del Modena Torre Ghirlandina | Modena Cathedral & Torre Civica | UNESCO World heritage Site

View of Torre Civica / Torre Ghirlandina & Cathedral from Piazza Grande

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES OF EMILIA ROMAGNA & SAN MARINO

Emilia Romagna region has 4 UNESCO World Heritage sites - Piazza Grande, Cathedral and the Ghirlandina Tower of Modena; Porticoes of Bologna; Ferrara city of Renaissance; and of course, the Mosaics of Ravenna .

When I say UNESCO World Heritage Sites, I purely mean the World Heritage Sites and not including UNESCO Creative City Networks or UNESCO Biospheres. Apart from these 4, the country of San Marino is, in its entirety, an exclave of Emilia Romagna region of Italy! So, this was my trip to visit 5 UNESCO Sites in 2 countries! Ofcourse, each of these UNESCO Sites require a separate blog article to share my Travelogue to Emilia Romagna, so here's the first one of my first site, UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Modena.

MODENA - THE ROMAN CITY OF MUTINA

The city of Modena was born in 183 BCE as Roman City and was then called Mutina. One of the initial discoveries were parts of the Roman wall in Piazza Roma. Mutina was not the only city founded in 183 BCE. Via Aemilia was an important road built during the Roman Era which connected Rimini to Piacenza, which went via Mutina. During its period of construction several Roman Cities were born along its whole length at Bononia (Bologna) (founded 189 BC), Mutina (Modena), Regium (Reggio Emilia), and Parma (all founded in 183 BC).

PIAZZA GRANDE, CATHEDRAL & GHIRLANDINA TOWER OF MODENA

Walking from the Teatro Comunale di Modena Pavarotti-Freni after visiting the Historic Center of Modena, I walked over to the Piazza Grande UNESCO World Heritage Site with my tour guide and we stopped at Preda Ringadora. In one corner of the Piazza Grande is the Prede Ringadora; in the opposite of Preda Ringadora are the Cathedral and the Torre Civica. All these are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Modena.

Behind & beside Preda Ringadora are the parts of Communal Palace. All these come under the bufferzone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Modena.

Preda Ringadora

What is Preda Ringadora? It was once used, in the medieval times as a stage on which announcements & orations were made. The rock itself is Red Ammonite rock from Verona (literally, archaeology & palaeontology together!).

Palazzo Communale di Modena | Historic Palace of Modena | UNESCO World Heritage Site

Perseus holding Medusa's head & Renaissance Staircase

Ancient units of Measurements in medieval Europe

Units of Measurement on Cathedral's back wall & Ancient Roman walls

Museo del Duomo | Modena Cathedral Museum | Places to see in Modena

Roman Columns with Pagan Capitals at Modena Cathedral

Renaissance Staircase & Palazzo Communale

From there, our next stop was the Mozza Tower Room & Palazzo Communale. To reach that from the Piazza Grande, we need to take a staircase, called the Renaissance Staircase. The Piazza Grande has a porticoes on all sides and at the edge of the Eastern Porticoes is the Renaissance Staircase that leads to another portico which is on the first floor of the Palazzo Communale that leads to the inner courtyard of the building. Right here is the sculpture of Perseus holding Medusa's head! It's a 19th C art sculpted by Cesare Aureli, who was inspired by the ancient Greek sculpture of the Apollo of the Belvedere; the pose of Perseus in this sculpture is exactly the same as Apollo of the Belvedere!

Atop here, are some of the historic rooms of the Palazzo Communale. This part here is called Palazzo Vecchio (literally means Old Palace) built in 1149 CE. (There are 3 other parts of the Palace around it - Palazzo Urbis (original Palazzo Communale / Municipal Palace) built in 1046 CE, Palazzo Nouvo (New Palace) built in 1216 CE, and Palazzo dei Notori (Palace of the Notaries) bult in 1220 CE)! Some of the historic rooms of the Palazzo Vecchio can be visited.

Mozza Tower Room

However, with the time I had, I managed to visit only the Mozza Tower Room which is one of the most historic parts of the city, built in 1046 CE. However, in 1501 CE, the tower got damaged severely in an earthquake and was later demolished and rebuilt with a dome atop and currently houses a museum. While the paintings here belong to the late 20th C CE, there's a fragment of ancient Roman Mosaic tile here of 2nd C CE.

Roman Amphitheatre

Like any Roman City, there must have been an Roman Amphitheatre of Modena as well, but it doesn't exist anymore and we don't know its original location! I'm sure, like the Roman Amphitheatre of London under London Guild Hall, this would come up in some excavation in the future!

Ancient units of Measurement

We came back to Piazza Grande and headed to the Cathedral, but before entering the Cathedral, we stopped at an important spot beside the wall of the Cathedral. That spot was the where the ancient units of measurements were still intact. Every city had its own units of measurements in the ancient times and mostly it would relate to the size of the palm, arm, & foot measurements of the chief-architect. This was primarily used for 2 purposes - uniformity while building the palace, cathedral etc ad well as for fair trade, for those who sell or buy anything that needs to be measured.

Here on the back wall of the Cathedral, on the outside, there were 4 units of measurements - Mattone (a rectangular hole for the standard size of a brick), Passo (the length measure beside Mattone corresponding to the common Modenese Pitch measurement of 1.27m), Coppo (a trapezoidal hole of the standard size of a tile), and Pertica (the length measure of 3.14m beside Coppo which was used to measure land)!

Dragon's Bone at Modena Cathedral

Duomo del Modena | Travel Guide to visit Modena Cathedral | UNESCO World Heritage Site |

The Cathedral & Torre Ghirlandina/Torre Civica

The building of the Cathedral began in 1099 CE and the completion of the Ghirlandina Tower happened in 1319 CE. The tower is more than 86m tall and was recently, completely restored. It isn't possible to climb Torre Civica at the moment.

Saint Geminiano (San Geminianus) of Modena

We then started to walk around Modena Cathedral, on the outside and spotted quite a few sculptures & bas-reliefs. One of the bas-reliefs is of the life of the Patron-Saint of Modena Saint Geminiano who lived in 4th C CE and was a Bishop of Modena who had performed very many miracles. San Geminianus is believed to had hid Modena from the invading King Attila the Hun of Hunnic Empire, who was on a conquering & ransacking mission across Europe, by conjuring up a very thick fog, thereby hiding Modena from the troops of King Attila!

The bas-relief about San Geminianus on Modena Cathedral was sculpted by Agostino di Duccio in the 15th C CE, at the peak of Renaissance Era. Agostino di duccio was a Renaissance Italian Sculptor born in Florence & was trained under Donatello.

Another curious artefact to the outside is the 'Dragon's Bone' from the dragon which was slain by San Geminianus. Well, it had been here since the middle ages and in the recent years, it has been discovered that it's a whale bone!

Frescoes, Mosaics & Sculptures at Modena Cathedral

There were some frescoes in the exterior of the Cathedral most of which were worn-out, but the interiors of the Cathedral had very many frescoes. There were quite a few bas-reliefs also all around the Cathedral.

To the north is the Porta della Pescheria (Pesca means Fish and this door faced the fishmarket in those days). The bas-reliefs that caught my attention were the lion pillars, pagan capitals on engaged columns which were originally Roman & been reused while building the Cathedral, and the friezes atop the doors, one of which depicted the life of Virgin Mary and another that depicted Adam & Eve. The one with Adam & Eve was quite interesting, esp, the scene where Eve is shown created from Adam's side. These friezes were sculpted by Wiligelmo, in 1099 to 1110 CE.

After the death of Wiligelmo, masters came in from Campione d'Italia from Switzerland! The lion pillars on either side of the entrance door is a typical of the Campionese masters of early 13th C CE. I couldn't help but wonder is these Campionese masters had ever visited southern India and seen the Pallava Simha Thoon (more about it below)!!! The spiral & rosette details of the arches around the door are very typical to the Campionese masters.

Many frescoes in the interiors of the Cathedral were intact, especially the ones in the walls of the shrines. The frescoes on the rood screen, over the bas-reliefs were absolutely exceptional. The most important was, ofcourse, the last supper. The rood screen & the main nave at a mezzanine level, built in the 12th C CE - 14th C CE, is still maintained as it was. Many of these frescoes were done by Christoforo & Lorenzo Canozi of Lendinara, Agostino Duccio, Dosso Dossi, Michele of Florence etc.

Apart from the frescoes there were also Mosaic works on both the apse, under the dome. However, both are modern, 18th C copies of Byzantine mosaics from Rome.

Miracles of San Geminianus - Bas relief by Wiligelmo

Marble arches with floral designs by Campionese masters

Story of Genesis (Adam & Eve) by Wiligelmo

Crypt of Modena Cathedral

Modena Cathedral's crypt, ofcourse, holds the relics of San Geminiano. Inside the cathedral's crypt is this very interesting set of life-size terracotta sculptures of Madonna & Child with 2 more people, sculpted by Guide Mazzoni c.1450-1528. This reminded me much of the terracotta sculptures of Sacrimonti di Ghiffa, though the Sacrimonti sculptures were made after about 2 centuries.

Torre Civica (or) Torre Ghirlandina

While the UNESCO Listing mentions Cathedral & Torre Civica, both are essentially the same thing. Torre Civica or Torre Ghirlandia is basically the bell tower atop the Cathedral. It isn't possible to climb Torre Ghirlandina.

Museo del Duomo (Cathedral Museum)

There is a museum inside the Cathedral which houses some of the rich tapestries that belong to the cathedral. These were made in Brussels in 16th C CE. One of the tapestries was about Adam & Eve and right behind Adam is a unicorn! There were the cloak, scarf and headgear of the Bishop, which were majorly embroidered. The amount of workmanship that had gone into it was just wow. It looked like a painting, but was made of long & short stitch. It just looked phenomenal.

There was also a copper sculpture of San Geminianus made in 14th C CE. This was originally atop the Porta Regia door overlooking the Piazza Grande.

SOMETHING TO PONDER!

Were the Campionese masters inspired by Pallavas of South India?

I have a question and trying to find some connection... The Lion Pillars in Modena in Italy which were sculptured in early 13th C CE. I was wondering if there's any connection between Pallava Simha Thoon & these Lion Pillars of Modena. The sculptors were from Campione d'Italia. Ofcourse, Pallava thoon are much older and were sculpted in 8th-9th C CE. I tried to look into travelers who might have visited the Pallava temples and made accounts of the Simha Thoon & took it to Italy and ofcourse, Marco Polo popped up. Marco Polo visited South India in 1292 on his way back and reached his home Venice in 1295. However, the Campionese masters made these lion pillars of Modena in the last decades of the 12th and the early 14th centuries. Did Marco-Polo make drawings of the Pallava Simha Thoon in his chronicles? Did the Campionese sculptors see it and get inspired by it and make it here?

Lion Pillars by Campionese Masters at Modena Cathedral

Terracotta sculptures in Modena Cathedral's crypt

PLACES TO VISIT IN MODENA

1. Piazza Grande, Modena Cathedral & Torre Ghirlandina

2. Acetaia Villa San Donnino (Balsamic Vinegar at Villa San Donnino)

3. Historic Center of Modena - Teatro Communale di Modena, Jewish Quarters of Modena & Ducal Palace of Modena.

BEST HOTELS IN MODENA

I stayed in Hotel Principe in Modena, very close to the railway station. Here's more about it.

BEST VEGETARIAN & VEGAN RESTAURANTS IN MODENA & DISHES TO TRY

The best thing about Italian Food is that it is, by default, vegetarian friendly - pizza, risotto, and most things are generally vegetarian friendly. There are a couple of purely vegan restaurants in Modena and I chose Monari Federzoni for lunch, Erbavoglio for dinner and stopped at a couple other places for snacks.

Here's more about these restaurants & dishes that I tried in Modeana - Modena for vegetarians.

Where is Piazza Grande (on Google Maps): Piazza Grande

Where is Preda Ringadora (on Google Maps): Preda Ringadora

Where is the Renaissance Staircase (on Google Maps): Renaissance Staircase

Where is the statue of Perseus & Medusa (on Google Maps): Statua di Perseo e Medusa

Where is the Modena Cathedral (on Google Maps): Duomo di Modena

Where is Modena Cathedral Museum (on Google Maps): Museo del Duomo

Entry Tickets of Piazza Grande, & Modena Cathedral: All the sites are free to go except Museo del Duomo (Modena Cathedral Museum).

Entry Tickets of Modena Cathedral Museum: €6.00

Entry Tickets to climb Torre Civica / Torre Ghirlandia: €6.00

Timings of Piazza Grande : Open 24x7

Timings of Modena Cathedral : 7:00 to 19:00 everyday

Timings of Modena Cathedral Museum: 10:00 to 14:00 & 15:00 to 18:00 pm from Tuesday to Friday Open till 19:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. Closed on Mondays.

How to reach Modena? Modena is well connected by Trenitalia. It is just 25 mins from Bologna which is connected by RyanAir flights.

How to reach Piazza Grande, Modena Cathedral & Torre Civica? Piazza Grande is just 1km (15 mins walk) from Modena Railway station

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