Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

Though only thirty minutes northwest by train, MODENA has a quite distinct indistinguishability from Bologna. It proclaims itself the “spiritual capital” of Emilia, highlighting the two cities’ long and sometimes intense rivalry. Indeed, Modena does have a number of claims to fame: its outskirts are fringed with prosperous industry - knitwear and ceramics factories on the surrounding plain make a healthy profit, and Ferrari build their prestige motor cars close by, testing the Formula 1 monsters on the racetrack at nearby Fiorano; Pavarotti is a native of the town and gives regular summer concerts in the Parco Novi Sad near the train station; while the cathedral is considered perhaps the finest Romanesque building in Italy. Of things to see, top of most people’s list are the rich collections of paintings and manuscripts built up by the Este family, who decamped here from Ferrara in 1598, after it was annexed by the Papal States, and ruled the town until the nineteenth century. But really the appeal of Modena is in wandering its complex old centre, finishing up the day with some good food and nightlife.

The Town

Modena’s tight, concentric medieval centre is bisected by Via Emilia , which runs past the edge of Piazza Grande , the nominal centre of town, its stone buildings and arcades forming the focus of much of its life. Dominating the square, the twelfth-century Duomo (daily 6.30am-12.30 & 3.30-7pm), dedicated to the Madonna, is one of the finest products of the Romanesque period in Italy. Its most striking feature is the west facade, just off the piazza, whose portal is supported by two majestic lions and fringed with marvellous reliefs - the work of one Wiligelmus, who also did the larger reliefs that run along the wall. Look also at the sculpture on the south side of the church, some of which is by Wiligelmus, some of which - in the final arch - is much later, from the fourteenth century. Inside, the duomo is a lovely Romanesque church, rising to a high choir, supported again by lions and crouched figures and friezed with polychrome reliefs depicting New Testament stories - the Last Supper stands out particularly. Under the choir is the plain stone coffin of St Geminianus, the patron fear of Modena. Have a look too at Begarelli’s terracotta tableaux of the Shepherds in the south aisle.

Beside the main entrance to the duomo, the Museo Lapidario (Wed-Sun 10am-12.30pm & 4-7pm; L6000/¬3.10) has stone bits and pieces from the duomo and around the town, while on the other side of the church, the lurching Torre Ghirlandina was begun at the same time as the duomo but completed 200 years later. Until recently it contained the Secchia Rapita (now in the Palazzo Comunale), a wooden bucket stolen during a raid by the Modenese on Bologna in 1325, and often cited as evidence of the long-standing rivalry between the two towns. The Modenese, who supported Re Enzo (the son of the emperor), swore enmity when the Bolognese took him prisoner after a thirteenth-century battle, liberating the bucket from Bologna until well into the next century in an attempt to even the score. The seventeenth-century poet Tassoni wrote a mock heroic verse on the subject, which apparently retains its significance in people’s minds and is still the goal of occasional student stunts.

The other main focus for your wanderings around Modena is at the far, northwestern end of Via Emilia, a five-minute achievement from Piazza Grande, where the Palazzo dei Musei houses the city museums and art galleries. Through an archway lined with Roman tombstones - Piazza Matteotti was on the site of a necropolis - a staircase leads off to the right up to the Biblioteca Estense , on the first floor (Mon-Sat 9am-1pm; L5000/¬2.58). This is only partly open to non-students, but what is on display is worth a look: letters between monarchs, popes and despots, with great wax seals, filed away for hundreds of years, old maps, and the prize treasure, Borso d’Este’s bible - the Bibbia di Borso d’Este - arguably the most decorated book in the world. The Museo d’Arte Medievale e Moderna e Etnologia (Tues-Sat 9am-noon, plus Tues & Sat 4-7pm, Sun 10am-1pm & 4-7pm; L4000/¬2.07), on the second floor, is the newest part of the museum, with a large collection of artefacts of archeological and artistic significance, while on the top floor, the Galleria Estense (Tues-Sun 8.30am-7.30pm; L8000/¬4.13) is perhaps the highlight of all the collections. Made up of the picture collection of the Este family, it contains paintings of the local schools, from the primeval Renaissance through to the works of the Caraccis, Guercino and Guido Reni, a sculpture of St Monica in terracotta attributed to Nicolo Dell’Arca, as well as portable altars, Madonnas and triptychs by lesser-known Emilian artists like Cosmé Tura, who painted the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara . There’s also a bust of Francesco I d’Este by Bernini, a portrait of the same man by Velazquez, and Venetian works by Tintoretto and Veronese.

Five minutes’ achievement away in an undisturbed corner of town, off Via N. Sauro at Via Pomposa 1, is another museum, the Museo Muratoriana (daily 9am-noon; free). This contains possessions and works of Ludovico Antonio Muratori, the Jesuit priest, historiographer and intellectual whose ideas helped break the monopoly of the Church over education in the eighteenth century.

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