Full text: Volume (2)

CATHEDRAL OF FIESOLE. 
313 
Fiesole from Montereggi, an eminence about three miles east 
of Fiesole, and that it was probably destroyed when Belisarius 
besieged the city. 
Adjoining the Museum of Fiesole in the Piazza is the 
church of Santa Maria Primeriana, dating from the tenth 
century. The Podestà and Gonfalonier of Fiesole were 
installed into office beneath the portico of this little church, 
where they recited an oration in praise of the city. It is still 
the custom to transport the Bishops of Fiesole hither on the 
day of the ceremonial. It contains two reliefs by Luca 
della Robbia. One represents the Crucifixion ; the Virgin 
Mary, the Magdalene, and St. John are very good. The other 
relief represents St. Michael the Archangel, and is inferior. 
The church also contains a very old wooden image of the 
Virgin belonging to the thirteenth century : it was originally 
called Santa Maria Intemerata, the church having been first dedi- 
cated to the Virgin ; and on grave occasions, such as sieges or 
some public calamity or pestilence, the Image was taken to 
Florence. 
The Duomo, or Cathedral of Fiesole, was founded by Bishop 
Jacopo Bavaro about 1028, and dedicated to San Romolo, or 
Romulus, when his relics were brought hither from the Badia at 
San Domenico. St. Romulus, according to the legend, was a 
Roman of noble birth, who had been converted by St. Peter, 
and sent by that apostle to preach Christianity to the heathen 
city of Fiesole. Accused of being a Christian, he was brought 
before the authorities and thrown into a dungeon, from whence, 
after submitting to many tortures, he was brought out and put 
to the sword, with other believers, on the rock beneath the 
citadel. This happened in the reign of the Emperor Nero. 
The Duomo latterly has undergone thorough repair. The 
outside of the building is perfectly simple, and the proportions 
of the interior are extremely beautiful. The nave and aisles are 
separated by a series of sixteen columns, composed of circular 
blocks, laid one above the other, of sandstone extracted from the
	        
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