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Arezzo |
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L'antica Strabo considered ancient
Arezzo, built on the hills overlooking the valley of the Clanis, to be
the Etruscan city that lay furthest inland. Thanks to its position, it
formed a natural centre for the farming population scattered over the
fertile Chiana Valley and possibly originally grew up as an outpost of
Chiusi, during the major period of Etruscan expansion to the north (6th
century B.C.). Although there is little archaeological data on the town,
there are ample traces of many of the important sanctuaries that once
contained famous "votive offerings", among them the famous
bronze Chimera, today in the Archaeological Museum in Florence; these
buildings were all decorated with extremely beautiful terracottas,
carried out by a well known local school of pottery (Piazza San Jacopo,
Via Roma, etc.). Surrounded by walls of great blocks of stone, the large
necropolis of Poggio Sole, founded in the 6th century B.C. and in use
until Roman times, shared the urban area.
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The Chapel
The work on a fresco cycle in the Cappella Maggiore of
the church San Francesco had already begun in 1452 when when Piero della
Francesca visited the city. The Florentine painter Bicci di Lorenzo was
working in the chapel, he died in 1452, leaving the decoration of the
chapel barely begun. Piero probably began to work right after Bicci's
death, covering in a few years the walls of the Gothic chapel with the
most modern and most advanced - in terms of perspective - frescoes that
the Italian 15th century could have created.
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NEAR AREZZO
The giostra of
Saracino in june and in september
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The 13th century Crucifix with Saint Francis was already
in the church when Piero della Francesca frescoed the chapel; it has
been recently placed above the main altar.
Franceso Petrarca
castello Poppi
