Cortona

The Best of Cortona in Half a Day

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 Day 1
10:00 Diocesan Museum

10:49 Cortona Cathedral

11:56 Museo dell'Accademia

Etrusca e città di
Cortona

12:43 Church of San

Francesco

13:40 Santa Margherita

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10:00 Diocesan Museum / Museo Diocesano
Visit Duration: 1 hour

The Diocesan Museum in Cortona is an art museum in Cortona, Tuscany, Italy. Located on the former site of
the local Church of Gesù, it houses works of art by artists such as Fra Angelico, Pietro Lorenzetti, Bartolomeo
della Gatta, Luca Signorelli and Sassetta. The oldest item in the museum is a marble Roman sarcophagus
(2nd century AD), depicting depicts the battle of Dionysus.

A room in the museum is specifically dedicated to the works of Luca Signorelli and his workshop, and
emphasizes the bond between Signorelli and his hometown, and correspond to the artist's last years of work,
from 1512 to 1523, the year of his death. Ten of the works bear the personal signature of Signorelli, the
others are assumed to be from his workshop.

Image By: File Upload Bot (Eloquence)

The large tempera on panel depiction of the Lamentation of Christ , which used to be in the church of S. Image Source:
Margaret of Cortona, was called "a rare form of art" by Giorgio Vasari. The predella, on which Girolamo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Angelico_069.jpg
Genga may have also worked displays scenes of the Passion such as of the Last Supper, Agony in the
Garden, and the Flagellation of Christ. The Communion of the Apostles , by Signorelli, was painted for the
Address: Piazza del Duomo, 1, 52044 Cortona
high altar of the Church of Gesù, and has an unusual iconography in which the apostles are gathered around AR, Italy
a table at the Last Supper, in a semicircle, standing or kneeling and around the figure of Christ. Only Judas, Phone Number: 0575 62830
concealing his 30 pieces of silver faces the viewer, his glance revealing the inner struggle of betrayal. Another Admission:
work attributed to Signorelli, or his workshop, is the 1519–1520 Assumption of the Virgin from the Cathedral Opening Hours:
of Cortona. Web: http://www.diocesiarezzo.it/

Other major art in the museum include:

The Cortona Triptych by Fra Angelico

Madonna and Child by Niccolò di Segna (c. 1336)
A large cross painted by Pietro Lorenzetti (1315–1320, from the church of San Marco)
Maestà by Pietro Lorenzetti
Triptych of the Madonna of Humility with Saints by Sassetta (c. 1434)
Assumption by Bartolomeo della Gatta (1470–1475)
Ecstasy of St. Margaret of Cortona by Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1701)

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10:49 Cortona Cathedral / Duomo di Cortona
Visit Duration: 45 mins
0.2 KM, 4 minutes walking from Diocesan Museum

Cortona Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Cortona , Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta ) is a Roman Catholic
cathedral in Cortona, Tuscany, central , dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the
seat of the Bishops of Cortona from 1507 to 1986, and is now a co-cathedral in the present Diocese of
Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro.

History
The church was built over the remains of an ancient Roman temple and is mentioned (as a pieve , or plebeian
church) in the 11th century. In 1325 the diocese of Cortona was created from the territory of the diocese of
Arezzo, but the present cathedral was not chosen at that date as the episcopal seat, although the adjoining Image By: Andrew.Lorenzs
building was used as the bishop's residence. Image Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cortona-catedral.jpg

In 1507 Pope Julius II resolved the anomaly and transferred the bishop's seat from the sub-urban church of
San Vincenzo. As if in preparation for its new importance, the interior had been refurbished in the late 15th Address: Piazza del Duomo, 1, 52044 Cortona
century. AR, Italy
Phone Number:
Description Admission:
Opening Hours:
The appearance of the original medieval church is mostly hidden by later additions, such as the 18th century Web:
barrel vaulted ceiling in the nave, which was repainted in the late 19th century by the local artist Giovanni
Brunacci; in the same period the oval windows, the triumphal arch and the pavement were also added or
remade. The oldest elements visible are in the Romanesque façade - a pier with capital, and small columns at
the corners, and part of the large arcade.

The church has a central nave and two aisles, divided by columns with Brunelleschi-inspired capitals. The
south side has a loggia built in the late 16th century. The bell tower dates from the middle of the same
century.

Artworks in the interior include an Adoration of the Shepherds by Pietro da Cortona and assistants (c. 1663),
a Consecration of the Church of the Holy Saviour by Andrea Commodi (1607, brought here in the late 18th
century) and a Descent of the Holy Spirit by Tommaso Bernabei (1528-1529). The town's Diocesan Museum
houses works formerly in the cathedral, including Pietro Lorenzetti's Maestà (before 1320), and a tapestry and
a reliquary from the period of the Renaissance.

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11:56 Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca e città di Cortona
Visit Duration: 1 hour
0.3 KM, 6 minutes walking from Cortona Cathedral

The Etruscan Academy Museum of Cortona (MAEC) is one of the most important museums of the city of Cortona.

MAEC headquarters
The Casali Palace, seat of the Etruscan Academy Museum of Cortona, was probably built in the thirteenth century and was the
residence of the family that ruled from 1325 the lordship of the town of Cortona. Among the ancestors of Ranieri Casali there
was quell'Uguccio who drove the usurpers of Arezzo in 1261, in the decades since the building was built, the restoration of the
walls and the recovery of public and private structures after the serious years suffered during the years of . The Lordship of the
Casali lasted until 1409, when the armies of King Ladislaus of Naples, just mastering the town, looted the palace was
confiscated along with other movable and immovable property of the family. In 1411 Ladislao gave Cortona Florentine Republic,
whose apportarono commissioners a series of changes to adapt it to the palace Florentine architectural tastes of the fifteenth Image By: Andrew.Lorenzs
Image Source:
century: use of bows, use of square stones. At the end of the Renaissance palace it acquired its present appearance: in fact in https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museu_da_Academia_Etru
the early seventeenth century were renovated the facade and the front part of the project of Philip Caps, the outer part towards
Via Casali instead did not have great changes. As for the interior trim there have been far-reaching changes except to adapt the
premises to the progressive new needs of the guests. In fact in 1531 the commissioners, not more of the Republic but the Address: Piazza Luca Signorelli, 9, 52044
government before the Medici and later of Lorraine, left trace of their presence in the long series of coats of arms placed on the Cortona AR, Italy
side towards via Casali and the atrium courtyard. Phone Number: 0575 637235
Admission:
In 1727 he born the Etruscan Academy and the Grand Duke of Tuscany Giangastone de 'Medici gave in use some local top Opening Hours:
floor of the building. The work which the environments were subjected allowed the rise of the museum and the library. Inside the Web: http://www.cortonamaec.org/
building in the meantime he continued to exist the theater, rebuilt after the accident in 1511 and renovated in 1666 by the
Academy of the US, which remained in use until the mid nineteenth century, when it was built the Teatro Signorelli in the site of
the church of St. Andrew.

With the end of the domain before then Lorraine Medici palace ceased its governmental representation and assumed new: the
premises on the first floor he found the Magistrates Court with the courts and the command of the Carabinieri, the ground floor
was transferred to the office of duty. Gradually over the last century the palace has lost its function as a forum for public offices
to become more and more of one culture center. Between 1928 and 1929 they were granted other local Academy and
immediately after the war the entire first floor was renovated for the museum and moved the Police, the mezzanine level in
municipal and academic library. Now free from any other destination in the eighties the palace underwent a radical recovery
with the recovery of almost all the rooms of the ground floor and mezzanine, intended for an impressive exhibition venue. Finally
in the last decade, the desire to increase the collections of the museum with the deposit of materials from the most recent
excavations of the Cortona area and other more locally sourced materials, led to a major restructuring of the ground floor and
basement levels. At the end of the work the museum was able to double its size, which ranks as one of the largest exhibition
realities of the region. Today the Palazzo Casali is the primary hub of the cultural activities of the city of Cortona: hosting the
library, the museum, the historical archive, the exhibition halls and municipal offices of the Councillor and the seat of the
Etruscan culture.
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Most famous works of the museum
Maternity

Motherhood is definitely one of the best known of the Futurist painter Gino Severini works. Oil performed in 1916, a crucial year
for the fate of futurism and the development of Cubism, it is one of the most complete experience classical artist expressions of
Cortona origin, as well as proof of his exceptional technical skill and artistic. The style of the painting marks a sharp turnaround
from the pioneering instances that had strongly influenced the artistic production of the time. Motherhood can be considered
simply a portrait of Jeanne Fort, daughter of the French poet Paul Fort, and Severini's wife, with whom he married in 1913. The
location and expression of women, of which the artist highlights physiognomic peculiarities, and holding in his arms the second
son Antonio who died prematurely, clearly reminiscent of the Madonnas of the Florentine Mannerism. This work was a great
success, earning an endless series of appreciations from many artists, including the poet and French art critic Guillaume
Apollinaire, who was so fascinated and conquered, who asked Severini to accomplish for a portrait of him in the same style. The
painting was involved in many exhibitions from the moment of its realization, but it is currently located in the Museum of the
Academy of Etruscan Cortona.

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12:43 Church of San Francesco / Convento San Francesco
Visit Duration: 45 mins
0.1 KM, 2 minutes walking from Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca e città di Cortona

San Francesco is a 13th-century, Roman Catholic church located on via Berrettini in Cortona, region of
Tuscany, Italy.

History
Built in 1245, the church has the typical Franciscan pattern: a large nave ending in an apse with a groin vault,
flanked by two smaller side-chapels also with groin vaults.

The facade holds a lancet-arched main doorway with three small columns in a recess, and a large circular
window set above. In the apse are the mouldings of the partially walled Gothic windows. On the left the
Image By: Fod
eastern wing of the cloister is visible, where there are two windows, now filled with masonry, and an arched Image Source:
doorway belonging to the Chapter House. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20090730_Church_of_San_

Inside can be seen some distinguished artworks, including the Nativity of Raffaello Vanni, the Annunciation by
Address: Via Berrettini, ., 52044 Cortona AR,
Pietro da Cortona, St. Anthony of Padua and the miracle of the mule by Cigoli (1597), and the Virgin in glory Italy
among the saints by Ciro Ferri. In the Convent of the Conventual Franciscan Friars (the guardians of the Phone Number: 0575 603205
church) are carefully preserved some relics of St. Francis of Assisi, namely a habit, a finely embroidered Admission:
cushion on which the dying saint laid his head (donated by Settesoli Giacoma de Santo, a noble lady of Opening Hours:
patrician Marino, who loved to call Francis Iacopo), and also a book of the Gospel. Web:

Also in this church is a preserved fragment of the Holy Cross, in a reliquary of Byzantine work in ivory and
silver. It was brought from Constantinople to Cortona by Friar Elia Coppi, whom San Francesco named as his
mother and a father for the other brothers, the successor to the leadership of the Conventual Franciscan
Friars. P. Eugen Rachiteanu governed the church and the convent together with two other monks from the
Conventual Franciscan Province of Romania.

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13:40 Santa Margherita / Basilica di Santa Margherita
Visit Duration: 45 mins
0.5 KM, 12 minutes walking from Church of San Francesco

Santa Margherita is a Neo-gothic style, Roman Catholic church, located just outside the Tuscan town of Cortona, , at the
intersection of Via delle Santucce and Via Sant Margherita, on a hill just below the Fortezza Medicea, and dedicated to a native
saint of town (Margaret of Cortona).

History
The church was originally the site of a small oratory dedicate to San Basilio, and built by Camaldolese Monks in the 11th
century. Damaged during the 1258 siege of the town by Arezzo, the church and adjacent convent were rebuilt in 1288 by efforts
led by Margherita di Cortona herself, a Franciscan nun, and dedicated to Saints Basil, Egidius, and Catherine of Alexandria. It
was then still called an oratory and measured only 15 meters long, and was adjacent to a small chapel of St Basil. Margaret
died in 1297 in a room behind the old church where she had lived the last years of her life; the room roughly corresponded to
Image By: Geobia
the present site of the 3rd altar on the left of the nave. She was buried in a wall of the chapel of St Basil. By 1330, the Image Source:
Cortonese had constructed a larger church and designed by Giovanni Pisano, in part to house her relics, disinterred in 1456, in https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3000CortonaSMargherita.J
that had become a source of veneration. The old church now became part of the nave of the newer, 30 meter long, structure.
The saint was canonized in 1728.
Address: Piazza Santa Margherita, 52044
A fresco from the church, attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti, is now conserved in the Diocesan Museum. Other 14th-century Cortona AR, Italy
frescoes such as ones by Barna da Siena have disappeared. Many of the canvases once in the interior have been dispersed or Phone Number:
moved. Admission:
Opening Hours:
The church underwent major enlargements and reconstructions in 1738 and in 1874-1878; only the choir and two vaults, the Web: http://www.diocesiarezzo.it/
second and third of the central nave, remain from the original church. The present Gothic Revival architecture style church is
the work of Enrico Presenti and Mariano Falcini. The facade was designed by Domenico Mirri (1856-1939), and completed by
Giuseppe Castellucci.

The rich marble mausoleum on the left of the transept by the Sienese workshops and the saint's silver casket (1774) at the main
altar, displaying her incorrupt body, was designed by Pietro Berrettini. The main altarpiece once held a large Crucifixion or
Deposition by Luca Signorelli. It is said St Margaret prayed before this crucifix. The marble statue (1781) of the saint in a niche
on the right was sculpted by Vincenzo Paccetti.

The second altar on the right has an altarpiece depicting Virgin and St Elizabeth of Hungary , by Jacopo da Empoli. On an altar
on the right there is a 13th-century wooden crucifix, originally from in the church of San Francesco, Cortona. On the right side
walls there are relics and captured standards donated by the Knights of Malta stationed in Cortona. On the left nave we see a
large chapel in memory of those Cortonese fallen during the war. Behind the church is the bell-tower (1650) and a monastery of
the Franciscan Order. The first altar on the left had an altarpiece depicting Saints Louis of Toulouse, Francis, Dominic, and
Margaret by Francesco Vanni il Vecchio. the second altar had a painting depicting the Massacre of the Innocents by Pietro
Zanotti.

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