![]() ![]() However, note that the reliefs and sculptures are casts - the originals are now in the museum. Giotto placed all the artistic appeal of the campanile on the exterior allowing anyone to enjoy the art at any time for free without ever having to enter the building or climbing any stairs. The original reliefs and sculptures are now inside the Duomo Museum Art and Decorations on Giotto’s Campanile in Florence It stands 84.7 m (278 ft) tall high - only around 10 m lower than the platform on top of Brunelleschi’s cupola. The free-standing bell tower has a square floor plan with the sides 14.45 m (47.41 ft) wide. The 30-m high spire that Giotto planned was never built. The bell tower is topped by a slightly protruding bastion, which is a popular and fairly easily accessible viewing point, and a fairly flat, tiled pyramid-shaped roof that is not visible from ground level. Most of the other working bells are from the mid-20th century. It has a diameter of 2 m and weighs 5385 kg. The oldest, and heaviest, is the Campanone / Santa Reparata cast in 1705. The bell tower has 12 bells, of which only seven can currently be rung. He added gabled windows with beautifully crafted twisted columns. The upper three levels without further statues and reliefs followed the white, green, and pink marble cladding of the lower stories. The campanile of Florence cathedral was finally completed by Francesco Talenti, who led the work from 1350 to 1359. (Pisano previously created a set of bronze doors for the baptistry.) His friend and confidant, Andrea Pisano, completed the second level to Giotto’s designs. At the time of his death in 1337, only the first level was completed. Structurally, the bell tower was relatively easy to build but Giotto went over the top with the art, which slowed the project down a bit. The resulting tall but slender sandstone tower with polychromatic marble cladding of the entire external structure is an architectural and artistic masterpiece. The foundations for the campanile were already laid by Arnolfo di Cambio three decades earlier so Giotto was restricted by the established dimension and location, which in line with the western facade of the cathedral was unusual. He was keen to set an architectural highlight for Florence and knew the bell tower would be simpler and faster to complete than the cathedral, which was not only much bigger but also had the problem of the large dome that would be difficult to build, to put it mildly, given not only the technology of the time but also a lack of wood in Tuscany and the ever-present question of financing. The 67-year-old Giotto, probably realizing his time was short, concentrated his efforts on the campanile. In 1334, the famous artist Giotto di Bondone, who had considerable architectural experience in addition to his famous paintings, was appointed the new building master for the duomo project. ![]() Construction of the cathedral complex in Florence started in 1296 but slowed down and came at times to a complete standstill following the death of its first building master Arnolfo di Cambio in 1302.
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