Milan: Sights

Milan Cathedral

We started our exploration of Milan at the Cathedral, a truly magnificent building. You can see from the exterior that it consists of a nave with two aisles on each side. I was surprised to discover that it is the largest church in Italy (on a technicality: St Peter's is bigger but is in the Vatican city), the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. (I just had to look up the other two: they are Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil and Seville.)

Work on the Cathedral was started in 1386, but the facade was not completed until 1812, when Napoleon was King of Italy.

The inside of the cathedral brings home its scale and the nave + two aisles plan gives rise to an astonishing number of columns, many of which have intriguing circular capitals.

At the east end there is a wonderful wall of stained glass in rectangular panels, each telling a story. the colours are extremely vibrant and the overall effect is quite magnificent.

One of the wonders of the cathedral is that you can go up onto the roof (by lift or stairs, we opted for the lift). You emerge from the lift to look through an opening at a line of pinnacles atop the side of one of the aisles.

You walk the length of the side and climb to the main roof, above the nave. The roof slopes somewhat and, as repair work is underway, it is somewhat cramped. You can see bright new stone work inserted amongst weathered stone. Enormous numbers of photos are being taken, including by me. It is a wonderful experience - unique, so far as I know.

Eventually, we drag ourselves away and descend. Turning right out of the cathedral, we enter the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It was started in 1861, the year of Italian Unification, when Vittorio Emanuele II came to the throne of all Italy. It is a cross-shaped arcade, four storeys high with galss barrel vaults meeting at a glass dome.

The angles formed by the points of intersection are decorated with mosiacs representing the coats of arms of the three successive capitals of the Kingdom, Turin. Florence and Rome, plus that of Milan. I confess I don't know which one is depicted in my photo.

The Galleria is noticeably home to elite shops and I was interested to read that there was a controversy a few years ago when a McDonalds outlet failed to have its lease renewed despite being there for 20 years (it was replaced by Prada). After outrage and law suits a vast new McDonalds was opened just opposite one of the entrances to the Galleria and everyone was happy.

We now headed off to one of Milan's finest churches, Sant Ambrogio. It was first built by St Ambrose in 379–386 and rebuilt in the Romanesque style in the 13th century. At first sight, the cloister or atrium in front of the main facade seems the most unusual feature. The strangest however is the two bell towers. Two, separate, distinct religious communities (Canons and Monks) shared the basilica in a state of tension and both insisted on having a dedicated bell tower.

Inside the Basilica is quite plain, but the combination of stone and brick creates a dramatic appearance.

In front of the altar is an ancient canopy, whose name eludes me now.

Behind it is a beautiful 13th century mosaic of Christ Pantokrator. This is a post card as there was no realistic way of taking a photograph.

We now adjourned to the mighty castle of the Dukes of Milan. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza and is known as the Castello Sforzesco. It is a massive square structure in red brick with enormous towers at the corners and a really imposing main gate.

This is the main gate from the inside.

We briefly visited the castle in 2001 and we were astonished by how much it had changed.Compare the pictures of the courtyard below.

The castle now houses some museums (closed when we went) and seems to be the site of a classic Italian passegiata: there was a continuous and substantial flow of people walking from the front entrance to the rear one.

To complete what we thought were the main sights we visited Pinoteca de Brera (Brera art gallery). Founded in 1809, it has an astonishing collection of Italian painting up to about 1850. There are also many later items not on display and the idea has been mooted of creating a Brera Modern to display them.

Out of great range of wonderful paintings including masterworks by Bellini and Mantegna I will just pick two: Piero della Francesca's The Virgin with child, angels and saints (it id also known as the Pala Montefeltro - the donor, Federico Montefeltro of Urbino, is shown kneeling on the front right)

... and Rafael's The Marriage of the Virgin.

To complete our tour we took a clockwise walk around the periphery of the Brera to reach the secluded Orto Botanico di Brera, a delightful botanical garden (think of the Chelsea Physic Garden).

It is a delightful spot, although it was perhaps too early in the year to see it at its best.

Rating: 5 stars.

Greece: Messene

Messene wasn't on our radar when we planned our trip to the Peloponnese, but we saw a lovely photo of a what seemed to be a small temple on the site and decided to visit it on our way back to Athens. Ancient Messene turned out to be about 20 km north of modern Messini on the edge of a village called Mavromati. Messene was founded in the 3^rd century BC at the foot of Mount Ithomi and continued into Roman times, being abandoned around 360 AD. As I am writing this I have just discovered that we failed to see a section of the city walls and an ancient gateway. That is really annoying, but there was still a great deal to enjoy.

Our first view revealed a large area with numerous ruined and partly restored structures.

The first main sight was the large, partly restored, Theatre.

The row of columns further down the slope is part of a Stoa along the side of the market place.

At the back of this and elsewhere on the site there are some lovely Roman mosaics.

Then there is the Sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of healing.

We realised that we hadn't seen our small temple and headed downhill to search for it. We quickly found it at the far end of an astonishing area containing a splendid stadium and gymnasium, nicely restored, surrounded on three sides by a Stoa.

On the right was a totally restored wrestling area.

And a rather lovely restored tomb, in use between the 3rd century BC and the 1st AD.

Now finally we got close to our temple – which we had seen of course as soon as we spotted the stadium. It turns out to be the Mausoleum of the eminent Saithidae family and was in use between the 1st  and 3rd centuries AD. It was still a delight to see it in the flesh in a beautiful position with the valley stretching away behind.  

 Closer inspection revealed that it sits on an astonishingly thick base.

We retraced our steps to the car park and got into the car for the long drive to Athens airport. Our visit to Messene provided a nice note to end our holiday on.

Conditions: greyish, but mild. The rain of the previous couple of days had finally departed.

Rating: five stars.

Greece: Ancient Corinth

The Fountain of Glauke

We are en route from Athens to Nafplio, but breaking our journey to see Ancient Corinth. Corinth was was one of the great Greek city states, but was entirely destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and rebuilt by Julius Caesar from  44 BC. Most of what is now visible dates from the 1st to the 3rd century AD.

The first thing you see on entering the main site is the Fountain of Glauke (above). The celebrated Roman traveller Pausanias wrote in AD 150 that the fountain received its name from Glauke, daughter of Creon, the King of Corinth, and the second wife of the hero Jason (he of the Argonauts). Medea, Jason’s first wife, in a fit of jealousy presented Glauke with a cloak infused with poison. After putting on the cloak, Glauke threw herself into the fountain in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the poison from burning her. [Information from the American School of Classical Studies website]

It soon became apparent that there were a few butterflies in view as well, including this beautiful Painted Lady and several Swallowtails and Whites.

We decided to look in the Museum before exploring the rest of the site and this proved to be a great idea, with lots of good statues and two fabulous Roman mosaics.

Round the back of the Museum was this striking group of short columns with lintels over Corinthian capitals.

 

The main event however was the Temple of Apollo, one of the oldest Temples in Greece, dating back to about 550 BC. It dominates the site, standing as it does on a knoll which is the highest point.

The temple was built in the Doric style. It had 6 columns at each end, and 15 along each side. It was 53m (174 feet) long and 21m (70 feet) wide. The  columns are monolithic, that is, made from single pieces of stone and display obvious entasis (swelling).

Beyond the temple is the vast Agora (Roman forum) which includes the platform where St Paul preached to the Corinthians.

On the far side is the Fountain of Peirene. The actual fountain is hidden behind a facade which once had six columns, but it still provides water for the nearby village.

Finally there is a short stretch of Roman Road, the Lechaion Road, which led to Lecheo, one of Corinth's two ports.

There is one interesting building outside the main site: the ruins of the Roman Odeon.

In the background, on the mountain to the left is the great fortress of Acrocorinth, strategically placed to defend the Isthmus of Corinth. It was originally a Greek acropolis, but later became a Roman citadel and then a Byzantine fortress. The Franks captured it in 1210 and later occupants included the Kingdom of Naples, the Knights of Rhodes, the Turks and the Venetians. We decided we did not have time to see it, but driving south later on, it was obviously what massive fortifications remained.

Conditions: hot and sunny.

Rating: four and a half stars.